1. The African elephant (loxodonta Africana) has very sizable ears with large blood vessels flowing through them, as well as long columnar legs, while the wooly mammoth, (mammuthus primigenius), has very small ears and shorter thicker legs than African elephants. Mammoths, however, weigh about twice as much as the largest African elephants. What might account for these significant differences in ear and limb size between these two pachyderms?
a. The African elephant lives in hotter climates while the wooly mammoth lived in colder ones and these differences in limb and ear length reflect adaptation to these habitat differences.
b. The African elephant probably has many more predators and needs these longer legs to escape and the larger ears to hear the danger coming.
c. These are probably differences due to coincidence and are not adaptations at all.
d. There is not enough information to adequately answer this question.
1. The African elephant (loxodonta Africana) has very sizable ears with large blood vessels flowing through them, as well as long columnar legs, while the wooly mammoth, (mammuthus primigenius), has very small ears and shorter thicker legs than African elephants. Mammoths, however, weigh about twice as much as the largest African elephants. What might account for these significant differences in ear and limb size between these two pachyderms?
a. The African elephant lives in hotter climates while the wooly mammoth lived in colder ones and these differences in limb and ear length reflect adaptation to these habitat differences.
b. The African elephant probably has many more predators and needs these longer legs to escape and the larger ears to hear the danger coming.
c. These are probably differences due to coincidence and are not adaptations at all.
d. There is not enough information to adequately answer this question.
