Tell me why the elephant s trunk is so long.

A study published in 2015 suggests a new explanation as to why elephants have evolved such long trunks: the long trunk is key to helping elephants feed and maintain their huge size.

The ancestor of the elephant, the Archaeopteryx, lived in swamps and riversides, spending most of its time in the water, similar to today's hippos, and in adaptation to this lifestyle, it developed a protruding snout to extend out of the water to breathe while swimming. Later, elephants turned to land life, and the long trunks of their ancestors remained.

The elephant's physique grows larger and larger as it changes its environment and adapts to its own needs, so that the distance between its mouth and the grass growing on the ground increases, making it difficult to eat food on the ground. In addition, the flexibility of the body is not enough, and it is very inconvenient to move. To compensate for these deficiencies, the elephant's trunk slowly developed into what it is today.

The benefits of the elephant trunk go beyond expanding the amount of food eaten, it also improves the quality of the elephant's feeding.

The long nose of course evolved from the short nose. According to the theory of natural selection, the trunks of elephant ancestors became longer and longer because long trunks had an advantage for their survival.

Then think about it, elephants don't have trunks. What to eat, how to drink water, can elephants bow their heads and drink water? In short, the elephants adapt to the local natural environment. Naturally selected by various objective conditions, a longer nose is easier to survive than a shorter one.

The elephant has no hands, it only has feet, if the nose is not long enough, then it is inconvenient for the elephant to have a runny nose, so in order to make it easier to clean the nose, the nose has to be elongated.

The elephant is known as the forest guardian, once the forest is on fire, it is the duty of the firefighter, its nose is the fire shooter, the nose is short, the water pressure is small.

For herbivores, the larger they are, the fewer predators they have to face, and elephants are almost at the top of the food chain. But at the same time, the energy consumed by its metabolism is also positively correlated with its body size, and it must eat a lot to avoid starvation. However, due to the low frequency of biting and slow eating, elephants simply cannot eat enough food for their daily needs by relying on the capacity of the mouth alone.

Therefore, its long trunk becomes particularly important, and with the help of its dexterous nose, the elephant can eat significantly more at one time, which is equivalent to helping it expand the soft oral volume and allow it to eat commensurate with its body weight. The same happens with giraffes, whose long tongues are part of their soft oral volume, but not as prominent as elephants' trunks.

Have you heard a story?

That is, once upon a time, the trunk of an elephant was very short. There is a baby elephant in the herd, and he likes to ask why, and sometimes everyone doesn't know how to answer. So, no one likes him.

One day, he asked again what the fish eat, and one of the elephants replied, "You'd better ask about it." The baby elephant really found the fish and said:"Brother Eyu, can you tell me what you eat?

At this time, the fish opened its mouth and bit the trunk of the baby elephant at once, and the baby elephant stepped back hard, pulling the trunk so long, so long, fortunately, the baby elephant escaped. He returned to the elephant herd. The other elephants laughed at him at first, saying that his nose was too ugly, but later they found it easy to use.

So he came to ask the baby elephant how his nose had grown, and the baby elephant told him what had happened. When everyone heard this, they came to look for Eyu. That's it.

One by one, the trunks of the elephants were elongated.

Got it. This is just a children's story. )

The nose was originally short.

He thinks he has to bend down every time he drinks water.

Too tired to pray to God said.

God, please let me drink water without bending down.

So God made the elephant's trunk very long, very long.

It hasn't changed back to this day.

That's why the trunks of the elephants we see now are so long!

Very powerful.

God exclaimed and said, "The elephant is an intelligent animal, it has turned its ugliness into a kind of strength, and the ugly nose has become a magic weapon for the survival of the elephant, and it seems that there is no need for me to transform it anymore." ”

Magical apprentice. Level 5-29

The most conspicuous thing on the elephant's body is its huge nose, which is also one of its most important organs. The trunk of an elephant has the function of breathing and smelling, and can smell the smell of the enemy from a distance of several hundred meters, so as to prepare for defense in advance; In summer, the elephant will often use its long trunk to go to the river to suck the water of the river, and then spray the water on its body to bathe; Its long nose not only helps to drink water, but also picks up food and carries things like a hand. Although the elephant is not a good swimmer, it sticks its long trunk high above the water when it crosses the river, like a "snorkel" so that it does not choke on water.

It can be seen that its long nose has a lot of uses.

From 100,000 whys.

Because elephants grow too tall.

It is inconvenient to drink water.

That's why the nose is so long.

This makes it easier to drink water.

You can also absorb and release water to play.

You can also take a shower