African Eleaphant Loxodonta, africana The major features of the order are the elongated snout, ivory tusks, column like legs, and large, heavyset bodies. The snout, composed of the upper lip, nostrils, and palate, forms a long, boneless proboscis usually called a trunk. Elephants drink by sucking up water with the trunk and then squirting it into the mouth. They may walk across rivers underwater with just the tip of the trunk protruding so that they can breathe. In living proboscides the tusks are formed from the second upper incisors.
Canine teeth are typically absent or greatly reduced throughout the Proboscides.
The largest on record was a bull standing 4 m tall with an estimated weight of 9,000 kg. The tusks appear on both sexes. In Loxodonta the trunk has a corrugated surface and ends in two finger like projections, and the ears are huge, frequently 1 m across. Elephants are totally herbivorous, eating grasses, leaves, and the bark of trees. During droughts Loxodonta obtains some water from the spongy tissues of the baobab tree.