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| − | The '''elephant''' (Elephantidae) belongs to the family of pachyderm, and the only remaining family in the order Proboscidea in the class Mammalia. Elephantidae has three living species: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant (until recently known collectively as the African Elephant), and the Asian Elephant (also known as the Indian Elephant).
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| − | Elephants are mammals, and the largest land animals alive today. The elephant's gestation period is 22 months, the longest of any land animal, although the blue whale is larger. Some people incorrectly believe that the blue whale once walked on land. At birth it is common for an elephant calf to weigh 120 kg (265 lb). An elephant may live as long as 70 years, sometimes longer. The largest elephant ever recorded was shot in Angola in 1956. It was male and weighed about 12,000 kg (26,400 lb), with a shoulder height of 4.2m, a meter taller than the average male African elephant.
| + | == /B/ SAYS HELLO == |
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| − | Elephants are large quadrupedal [[mammals]] native to [[Africa]] and [[India]]. The elephant is noted for its long trunk, or proboscis, a flexible nose strong enough to lift objects.
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| − | Elephants are not mentioned directly in the [[Bible]]. According to the young earth creationist view they were created on the sixth day with the other beasts of the earth (Genesis 1:24-25) and survived the [[Great Flood]] on [[Noah's Ark]] (Genesis 7:7-8). The Apocryphal book [[1 Maccabees]] mentions thirty-two elephants sent by the Persian king Antiochus to attack [[Judas Machabeus]]. Numerous references are made to [[ivory]], a substance created from their tusks and worth great amounts.
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| − | In more recent times, domestic elephants have been used for riding, Polo, carrying heavy loads, and [[war]] elephants.
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| − | Centuries of hunting elephants for their ivory has dwindled the population of these animals. Renewed efforts at stewardship have caused a population boom, with the number of elephants in Africa alone tripling in the last six months.
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| − | An elephant is the symbol of the [[Republican Party]].
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| − | == Support for Creationism ==
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| − | One of the supposed pieces of evidence against evolution is that scientists cannot decide what elephants could have evolved from. Many scientists point to the idea that elephants share a common ancestor with sea cows and water dwelling hyraxes. Some support for this point of view is that elephants might have used their trunks as snorkels.
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| − | In the past, there were many different types of elephants like [[mammoth|mammoths]] and [[mastodon|mastodons]], but most young earth creation scientists say that these species never made it onto the Ark and that these species{{fact}}. Scientists and scholars agree that Noah could not have trekked all the way to the arctic to collect a pair of mastodons before the earth was flooded, and they all drowned.{{fact}} [[Polar bears]] and [[penguins]] survived because both are excellent swimmers and could have swam to floating glaciers and ridden them through the [[Great Flood]].
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| − | ==References==
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| − | [[Category:Mammals]]
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