ancient proboscidean

Meaning

A member of the taxonomic order Proboscidea, which includes elephants and their extinct relatives like mammoths and mastodons, characterized by their long muscular trunks.

Examples

• The museum display featured the skeleton of an ancient proboscidean that once roamed the grasslands of prehistoric North America.
• Researchers analyzed the DNA of the ancient proboscidean to better understand the evolutionary divergence of modern elephant species.