94-474: Proboscidea ( / ˌ p r oʊ b ə ˈ s ɪ d i ə / ; from Latin proboscis , from Ancient Greek προβοσκίς ( proboskís ) 'elephant's trunk') is a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family ( Elephantidae ) and several extinct families. First described by J. Illiger in 1811, it encompasses the elephants and their close relatives. Three species of elephant are currently recognised:
188-466: A band of enamel covers part of the tusk surface, though in many later groups including modern elephants the band is lost, with elephants only having enamel on the tusk tips of juveniles. The upper tusks were initially modest in size, but from the Late Miocene onwards proboscideans developed increasingly large tusks, with the longest ever recorded tusk being 5.02 metres (16.5 ft) long belonging to
282-579: A change to more humid conditions, which may have reduced grazing habitat. The last records of Stegodon florensis date to around 50,000 years ago, around the time of arrival of modern humans to Flores (the earliest evidence of which dates to 46,000 years ago), suggesting that effects of modern human activity were likely the cause of their extinction. Stegodon became extinct in the Indian subcontinent ( Stegodon namadicus / Stegodon sp .), mainland Southeast Asia and China ( S. orientalis ) at some point during
376-526: A faster pace. It is characterised by greater use of prepositions, and word order that is closer to modern Romance languages, for example, while grammatically retaining more or less the same formal rules as Classical Latin. Ultimately, Latin diverged into a distinct written form, where the commonly spoken form was perceived as a separate language, for instance early French or Italian dialects, that could be transcribed differently. It took some time for these to be viewed as wholly different from Latin however. After
470-743: A few in German , Dutch , Norwegian , Danish and Swedish . Latin is still spoken in Vatican City, a city-state situated in Rome that is the seat of the Catholic Church . The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part, in substantial works or in fragments to be analyzed in philology . They are in part the subject matter of the field of classics . Their works were published in manuscript form before
564-404: A few. Famous and well regarded writers included Petrarch, Erasmus, Salutati , Celtis , George Buchanan and Thomas More . Non fiction works were long produced in many subjects, including the sciences, law, philosophy, historiography and theology. Famous examples include Isaac Newton 's Principia . Latin was also used as a convenient medium for translations of important works first written in
658-560: A native language, Medieval Latin was used across Western and Catholic Europe during the Middle Ages as a working and literary language from the 9th century to the Renaissance , which then developed a classicizing form, called Renaissance Latin . This was the basis for Neo-Latin which evolved during the early modern period . In these periods Latin was used productively and generally taught to be written and spoken, at least until
752-567: A result, the list has variants, as well as alternative names. In addition to the historical phases, Ecclesiastical Latin refers to the styles used by the writers of the Roman Catholic Church from late antiquity onward, as well as by Protestant scholars. The earliest known form of Latin is Old Latin, also called Archaic or Early Latin, which was spoken from the Roman Kingdom , traditionally founded in 753 BC, through
846-407: A separate language, existing more or less in parallel with the literary or educated Latin, but this is now widely dismissed. The term 'Vulgar Latin' remains difficult to define, referring both to informal speech at any time within the history of Latin, and the kind of informal Latin that had begun to move away from the written language significantly in the post-Imperial period, that led ultimately to
940-709: A small number of Latin services held in the Anglican church. These include an annual service in Oxford, delivered with a Latin sermon; a relic from the period when Latin was the normal spoken language of the university. In the Western world, many organizations, governments and schools use Latin for their mottos due to its association with formality, tradition, and the roots of Western culture . Canada's motto A mari usque ad mare ("from sea to sea") and most provincial mottos are also in Latin. The Canadian Victoria Cross
1034-429: A sort of informal language academy dedicated to maintaining and perpetuating educated speech. Philological analysis of Archaic Latin works, such as those of Plautus , which contain fragments of everyday speech, gives evidence of an informal register of the language, Vulgar Latin (termed sermo vulgi , "the speech of the masses", by Cicero ). Some linguists, particularly in the nineteenth century, believed this to be
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#17327730205451128-572: A spoken and written language by the scholarship by the Renaissance humanists . Petrarch and others began to change their usage of Latin as they explored the texts of the Classical Latin world. Skills of textual criticism evolved to create much more accurate versions of extant texts through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and some important texts were rediscovered. Comprehensive versions of authors' works were published by Isaac Casaubon , Joseph Scaliger and others. Nevertheless, despite
1222-432: A strictly left-to-right script. During the late republic and into the first years of the empire, from about 75 BC to AD 200, a new Classical Latin arose, a conscious creation of the orators, poets, historians and other literate men, who wrote the great works of classical literature , which were taught in grammar and rhetoric schools. Today's instructional grammars trace their roots to such schools , which served as
1316-693: A vernacular, such as those of Descartes . Latin education underwent a process of reform to classicise written and spoken Latin. Schooling remained largely Latin medium until approximately 1700. Until the end of the 17th century, the majority of books and almost all diplomatic documents were written in Latin. Afterwards, most diplomatic documents were written in French (a Romance language ) and later native or other languages. Education methods gradually shifted towards written Latin, and eventually concentrating solely on reading skills. The decline of Latin education took several centuries and proceeded much more slowly than
1410-411: Is Veritas ("truth"). Veritas was the goddess of truth, a daughter of Saturn, and the mother of Virtue. Switzerland has adopted the country's Latin short name Helvetia on coins and stamps, since there is no room to use all of the nation's four official languages . For a similar reason, it adopted the international vehicle and internet code CH , which stands for Confoederatio Helvetica ,
1504-897: Is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages . Latin was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio ), the lower Tiber area around Rome , Italy. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire . By the late Roman Republic , Old Latin had evolved into standardized Classical Latin . Vulgar Latin refers to
1598-640: Is a reversal of the original phrase Non terrae plus ultra ("No land further beyond", "No further!"). According to legend , this phrase was inscribed as a warning on the Pillars of Hercules , the rocks on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar and the western end of the known, Mediterranean world. Charles adopted the motto following the discovery of the New World by Columbus, and it also has metaphorical suggestions of taking risks and striving for excellence. In
1692-552: Is found in any widespread language, the languages of Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy have retained a remarkable unity in phonological forms and developments, bolstered by the stabilising influence of their common Christian (Roman Catholic) culture. It was not until the Muslim conquest of Spain in 711, cutting off communications between the major Romance regions, that the languages began to diverge seriously. The spoken Latin that would later become Romanian diverged somewhat more from
1786-689: Is modelled after the British Victoria Cross which has the inscription "For Valour". Because Canada is officially bilingual, the Canadian medal has replaced the English inscription with the Latin Pro Valore . Spain's motto Plus ultra , meaning "even further", or figuratively "Further!", is also Latin in origin. It is taken from the personal motto of Charles V , Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain (as Charles I), and
1880-464: Is suggested to be the largest species, and is known from an old male (50-plus years old) from the Yellow River that is 3.87 m (12.7 ft) tall and would have weighed approximately 12.7 tonnes (12.5 long tons; 14.0 short tons) in life. It had a humerus 1.21 m (4.0 ft) long, a femur 1.46 m (4.8 ft) long, and a pelvis 2 m (6.6 ft) wide. The Indian S. ganesa
1974-603: Is suggested to have a shoulder height of about 3.10 m (10.2 ft), and a body mass of around 6.5 tonnes (6.4 long tons; 7.2 short tons). The Javanese species S. trigonocephalus is suggested to have been around 2.75–2.8 m (9.0–9.2 ft) tall, with a body mass of around 5 tonnes (4.9 long tons; 5.5 short tons). S. orientalis was around the size of an Asian elephant ( Elephas maximus ). Similar to modern-day elephants, stegodonts were likely good swimmers, allowing them to disperse to remote islands in Indonesia,
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#17327730205452068-1011: Is taught at many high schools, especially in Europe and the Americas. It is most common in British public schools and grammar schools, the Italian liceo classico and liceo scientifico , the German Humanistisches Gymnasium and the Dutch gymnasium . Occasionally, some media outlets, targeting enthusiasts, broadcast in Latin. Notable examples include Radio Bremen in Germany, YLE radio in Finland (the Nuntii Latini broadcast from 1989 until it
2162-504: Is the African bush elephant, with a world record of size of 4 m (13.1 ft) at the shoulder and 10.4 t (11.5 short tons). In addition to their enormous size, later proboscideans are distinguished by tusks and long, muscular trunks, which were less developed or absent in early proboscideans. Over 180 extinct members of Proboscidea have been described. The earliest proboscideans, Eritherium and Phosphatherium are known from
2256-543: The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL). Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same: volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance and relevant information. The reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy . About 270,000 inscriptions are known. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. In
2350-738: The African bush elephant , the African forest elephant , and the Asian elephant . Extinct members of Proboscidea include the deinotheres , mastodons , gomphotheres and stegodonts . The family Elephantidae also contains several extinct groups, including mammoths and Palaeoloxodon . Proboscideans include some of the largest known land mammals, with the elephant Palaeoloxodon namadicus and mastodon "Mammut" borsoni suggested to have body masses surpassing 16 tonnes (35,000 lb), rivalling or exceeding paraceratheres (the otherwise largest known land mammals) in size. The largest extant proboscidean
2444-592: The Ancient Greek words στέγω , stégō , 'to cover', + ὀδούς , odoús , 'tooth' because of the distinctive ridges on the animal's molars ) is an extinct genus of proboscidean , related to elephants . It was originally assigned to the family Elephantidae along with modern elephants but is now placed in the extinct family Stegodontidae . Like elephants, Stegodon had teeth with plate-like lophs that are different from those of more primitive proboscideans like gomphotheres and mammutids . Fossils of
2538-845: The Channel Islands and evolved into the pygmy mammoth . This species reached a height of 1.2–1.8 m (4–6 ft) and weighed 200–2,000 kg (440–4,410 lb). A population of small woolly mammoths survived on Wrangel Island as recently as 4,000 years ago. After their discovery in 1993, they were considered dwarf mammoths. This classification has been re-evaluated and since the Second International Mammoth Conference in 1999, these animals are no longer considered to be true "dwarf mammoths". It has been suggested that members of Elephantimorpha, including mammutids, gomphotheres, and stegodontids, lived in herds like modern elephants. Analysis of remains of
2632-786: The Channel Islands of California , and several islands of the Mediterranean . Elephas celebensis of Sulawesi is believed to have descended from Elephas planifrons . Elephas falconeri of Malta and Sicily was only 1 m (3 ft), and had probably evolved from the straight-tusked elephant . Other descendants of the straight-tusked elephant existed in Cyprus . Dwarf elephants of uncertain descent lived in Crete , Cyclades and Dodecanese , while dwarf mammoths are known to have lived in Sardinia . The Columbian mammoth colonised
2726-583: The Holy See , the primary language of its public journal , the Acta Apostolicae Sedis , and the working language of the Roman Rota . Vatican City is also home to the world's only automatic teller machine that gives instructions in Latin. In the pontifical universities postgraduate courses of Canon law are taught in Latin, and papers are written in the same language. There are
2820-748: The Late Pleistocene epoch, while Asian elephants, which existed in sympatry with Stegodon in these regions, are still extant. The precise timing of extinction is uncertain for these regions, though in India records of Stegodon may date as recently as 35-30,000 years ago. The survival of the Asian elephant as opposed to Stegodon orientalis in Southeast Asia and South China has been suggested to be due to its more flexible diet in comparison to S. orientalis . Although some authors have claimed
2914-490: The Late Pleistocene is estimated to be around 17% the size of mainland Stegodon species, with a shoulder height of around 130 cm (4.3 ft), and a body mass of about 570 kilograms (1,260 lb). During Pliocene-Early Pleistocene (from around 4-1 million years ago), a succession of endemic dwarf species of Stegodon, probably representing a single lineage lived in the Japanese archipelago , probably derived from
Proboscidea - Misplaced Pages Continue
3008-428: The Late Pleistocene . The skull of Stegodon is relatively tall but short. The lower jaw in comparison to early elephantimorphs is shortened (brevirostrine), and lacks lower tusks/incisors. The molar teeth are superficially like those of elephants, consisting of parallel lamellae that form ridges but are generally relatively low crowned (brachydont), the numbers of ridges are greater in later species. Members of
3102-574: The Middle Ages , borrowing from Latin occurred from ecclesiastical usage established by Saint Augustine of Canterbury in the 6th century or indirectly after the Norman Conquest , through the Anglo-Norman language . From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed " inkhorn terms ", as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by
3196-549: The Middle Pleistocene which was initially substantially larger, but progressively reduced in size over time, with the earlier subspecies Stegodon florensis florensis from the Middle Pleistocene estimated to be around 50% the size of mainland Stegodon species with a shoulder height of around 190 cm (6.2 ft) and a body mass of around 1.7 tons, while the later Stegodon florensis insularis from
3290-576: The Roman Rite of the Catholic Church at the Vatican City . The church continues to adapt concepts from modern languages to Ecclesiastical Latin of the Latin language. Contemporary Latin is more often studied to be read rather than spoken or actively used. Latin has greatly influenced the English language , along with a large number of others, and historically contributed many words to
3384-569: The Romance languages . During the Classical period, informal language was rarely written, so philologists have been left with only individual words and phrases cited by classical authors, inscriptions such as Curse tablets and those found as graffiti . In the Late Latin period, language changes reflecting spoken (non-classical) norms tend to be found in greater quantities in texts. As it
3478-636: The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 and Germanic kingdoms took its place, the Germanic people adopted Latin as a language more suitable for legal and other, more formal uses. While the written form of Latin was increasingly standardized into a fixed form, the spoken forms began to diverge more greatly. Currently, the five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish , Portuguese , French , Italian , and Romanian . Despite dialectal variation, which
3572-656: The ancestors of the true elephants and mammoths , but currently they are believed to have no modern descendants. Stegodon is likely derived from Stegolophodon , an extinct genus known from the Miocene of Asia, with transitional fossils between the two genera known from the Late Miocene of Southeast Asia and Yunnan in South China. Stegodon is more closely related to elephants and mammoths than to mastodons . Like elephants, stegodontids are believed to have derived from gomphotheres . The following cladogram shows
3666-1362: The American gomphotheres Cuvieronius and Notiomastodon ) and Palaeoloxodon becoming extinct, with mammoths only surviving in relict populations on islands around the Bering Strait into the Holocene, with their latest survival being on Wrangel Island around 4,000 years ago. The following cladogram is based on endocasts. Phosphatherium esculliei [REDACTED] Numidotherium koholense [REDACTED] Moeritherium lyonsi [REDACTED] Deinotheriidae [REDACTED] Palaeomastodon beadnelli [REDACTED] Mammut americanum [REDACTED] Zygolophodon borsoni [REDACTED] Choerolophodon pentelici Gomphotherium augustidens [REDACTED] Cuvieronius andium [REDACTED] Stegomastodon humboldti [REDACTED] Stegodon insignis [REDACTED] Mammuthus meridionalis [REDACTED] Mammuthus primigenius [REDACTED] Mammuthus columbi [REDACTED] Elephas maximus [REDACTED] Loxodonta africana [REDACTED] Palaeoloxodon antiquus [REDACTED] Palaeoloxodon falconeri [REDACTED] Over
3760-668: The American mastodon ( Mammut americanum ) suggest that like modern elephants, that herds consisted of females and juveniles and that adult males lived solitarily or in small groups, and that adult males periodically engaged in fights with other males during periods similar to musth found in living elephants. These traits are suggested to be inherited from the last common ancestor of elephantimorphs, with musth-like behaviour also suggested to have occurred in gomphotheres. All elephantimorphs are suggested to have been capable of communication via infrasound , as found in living elephants. Deinotheres may have also lived in herds, based on tracks found in
3854-637: The Bering Land Bridge. Proboscidean groups prominent during the Miocene include the deinotheres , along with the more advanced elephantimorphs , including mammutids (mastodons), gomphotheres , amebelodontids (which includes the "shovel tuskers" like Platybelodon ), choerolophodontids and stegodontids . Around 10 million years ago, the earliest members of the family Elephantidae emerged in Africa, having originated from gomphotheres. The Late Miocene saw major climatic changes, which resulted in
Proboscidea - Misplaced Pages Continue
3948-637: The British Crown. The motto is featured on all presently minted coinage and has been featured in most coinage throughout the nation's history. Several states of the United States have Latin mottos , such as: Many military organizations today have Latin mottos, such as: Some law governing bodies in the Philippines have Latin mottos, such as: Some colleges and universities have adopted Latin mottos, for example Harvard University 's motto
4042-613: The English lexicon , particularly after the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman Conquest . Latin and Ancient Greek roots are heavily used in English vocabulary in theology , the sciences , medicine , and law . A number of phases of the language have been recognized, each distinguished by subtle differences in vocabulary, usage, spelling, and syntax. There are no hard and fast rules of classification; different scholars emphasize different features. As
4136-599: The Grinch Stole Christmas! , The Cat in the Hat , and a book of fairy tales, " fabulae mirabiles ", are intended to garner popular interest in the language. Additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissner's Latin Phrasebook . Some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series,
4230-454: The Late Miocene of Romania. Over the course of the Neogene and Pleistocene, various members of Elephantida shifted from a browse-dominated diet towards mixed feeding or grazing. Below is a taxonomy of proboscidean genera as of 2019. [REDACTED] Latin language Latin ( lingua Latina , pronounced [ˈlɪŋɡʷa ɫaˈtiːna] , or Latinum [ɫaˈtiːnʊ̃] )
4324-503: The Late Miocene onwards, many groups convergently developed brevirostrine (shortened) lower jaws with vestigial or no lower tusks. Elephantids are distinguished from other proboscideans by a major shift in the molar morphology to parallel lophs rather than the cusps of earlier proboscideans, allowing them to become higher crowned (hypsodont) and more efficient in consuming grass. Several species of proboscideans lived on islands and experienced insular dwarfism . This occurred primarily during
4418-571: The Late Pleistocene Ma’anshan site also in Guizhou, remains of Stegodon orientalis including both adults and juveniles among other animals are found in two layers, the older dating to around 53,000 years Before Present (BP), with the younger dates to around 19,295-31,155 years BP with the minimum number of individuals being 7 and 2 for the older and younger layers respectively, with the older layer containing adults and juveniles while in
4512-835: The Late Pliocene of the India (including Stegodon insignis ) are suggested to have been variable mixed feeders, while those from the earliest Pleistocene (including Stegodon ganesa ) of the same region are suggested to have been nearly pure grazers based on isotopic analysis. Based on dental microwear analysis, populations of Stegodon from the Pleistocene of China ( Stegodon orientalis and Stegodon huananensis ) and mainland southeast Asia ( S. orientalis ) were found to be browsers , with clear niche differentiation from sympatric Elephas populations, which tended towards mixed feeding (both browsing and grazing ), though isotopic analysis of Stegodon cf. orientalis specimens from
4606-410: The Philippines and Japan. Once present on the islands, due to the process of insular dwarfism , as a result of decreased land area and the reduction of predation and competition pressure, they reduced in body size, with the degree of dwarfism varying between islands as the result of local conditions. One of the smallest species, Stegodon sumbaensis from Sumba in Indonesia, is estimated at around 8% of
4700-530: The Pleistocene, when some elephant populations became isolated by fluctuating sea levels, although dwarf elephants did exist earlier in the Pliocene. These elephants likely grew smaller on islands due to a lack of large or viable predator populations and limited resources. By contrast, small mammals such as rodents develop gigantism in these conditions. Dwarf proboscideans are known to have lived in Indonesia ,
4794-470: The Pliocene of East Africa were found to be browsers to mixed feeders, based on mesowear analysis. Tracks of a group of Stegodon from the Late Pliocene of Japan suggest that like modern elephants, Stegodon lived in social herds. On Flores, where dwarf Stegodon species were the only large herbivores, they were likely the main prey of the Komodo dragon . In the past, stegodonts were believed to be
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#17327730205454888-467: The United States the unofficial national motto until 1956 was E pluribus unum meaning "Out of many, one". The motto continues to be featured on the Great Seal . It also appears on the flags and seals of both houses of congress and the flags of the states of Michigan, North Dakota, New York, and Wisconsin. The motto's 13 letters symbolically represent the original Thirteen Colonies which revolted from
4982-563: The University of Kentucky, the University of Oxford and also Princeton University. There are many websites and forums maintained in Latin by enthusiasts. The Latin Misplaced Pages has more than 130,000 articles. Italian , French , Portuguese , Spanish , Romanian , Catalan , Romansh , Sardinian and other Romance languages are direct descendants of Latin. There are also many Latin borrowings in English and Albanian , as well as
5076-450: The author and then forgotten, but some useful ones survived, such as 'imbibe' and 'extrapolate'. Many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French . Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and Dutch vocabularies. Those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Stegodon Stegodon ("roofed tooth" from
5170-425: The benefit of those who do not understand Latin. There are also songs written with Latin lyrics . The libretto for the opera-oratorio Oedipus rex by Igor Stravinsky is in Latin. Parts of Carl Orff 's Carmina Burana are written in Latin. Enya has recorded several tracks with Latin lyrics. The continued instruction of Latin is seen by some as a highly valuable component of a liberal arts education. Latin
5264-476: The bone is around 170,000 years old. At the late Middle Pleistocene Panxian Dadong cave site in southern Guizhou Province, southwest China, dating to around 300-190,000 years ago, numerous remains of juvenile (0-12 years of age) and a much smaller number of adult remains of adult Stegodon orientalis , representing a minimum of 12 individuals were found at the site in association with stone tools and human remains. It suggested that Stegodon remains were brought to
5358-409: The careful work of Petrarch, Politian and others, first the demand for manuscripts, and then the rush to bring works into print, led to the circulation of inaccurate copies for several centuries following. Neo-Latin literature was extensive and prolific, but less well known or understood today. Works covered poetry, prose stories and early novels, occasional pieces and collections of letters, to name
5452-535: The cave by humans though none of the elements show clear evidence of processing. At the Xinlong Cave site in the Three Gorges area of Chongqing, suggested to date to around 200-130,000 years ago, two Stegodon cf. orientalis tusks have been found along with human remains. These tusks appear to have been delibrately engraved with patterns and are suggested to have been brought into the cave by humans. At
5546-415: The classicised Latin that followed through to the present are often grouped together as Neo-Latin , or New Latin, which have in recent decades become a focus of renewed study , given their importance for the development of European culture, religion and science. The vast majority of written Latin belongs to this period, but its full extent is unknown. The Renaissance reinforced the position of Latin as
5640-412: The country's full Latin name. Some film and television in ancient settings, such as Sebastiane , The Passion of the Christ and Barbarians (2020 TV series) , have been made with dialogue in Latin. Occasionally, Latin dialogue is used because of its association with religion or philosophy, in such film/television series as The Exorcist and Lost (" Jughead "). Subtitles are usually shown for
5734-438: The course of the Early Pleistocene , all non-elephantid probobscideans outside of the Americas became extinct (including mammutids, gomphotheres and deinotheres), with the exception of Stegodon . Gomphotheres dispersed into South America during this era as part of the Great American interchange , and mammoths migrating into North America around 1.5 million years ago. At the end of the Early Pleistocene, around 800,000 years ago
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#17327730205455828-480: The course of their evolution, proboscideans experienced a significant increase in body size. Some members of the families Deinotheriidae , Mammutidae , Stegodontidae and Elephantidae are thought to have exceeded modern elephants in size, with shoulder heights over 4 metres (13 ft) and masses over 10 tonnes (22,000 lb), with average fully grown males of the mammutid "Mammut" borsoni having an estimated body mass of 16 tonnes (35,000 lb), making it one
5922-434: The decline and extinction of many proboscidean groups such as amebelodontids and choerolophodontids. The earliest members of modern genera of Elephantidae appeared during the latest Miocene-early Pliocene around 6-5 million years ago. The elephantid genera Elephas (which includes the living Asian elephant) and Mammuthus (mammoths) migrated out of Africa during the late Pliocene, around 3.6 to 3.2 million years ago. Over
6016-429: The decline in written Latin output. Despite having no native speakers, Latin is still used for a variety of purposes in the contemporary world. The largest organisation that retains Latin in official and quasi-official contexts is the Catholic Church . The Catholic Church required that Mass be carried out in Latin until the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965 , which permitted the use of the vernacular . Latin remains
6110-419: The dwarf archaic human species Homo floresiensis , with a small number of the bones bearing cut marks . The ambiguous circumstantial association between bones and stone tools, and the rarity of cut marks makes it unclear to what if to any degree, hunting of Stegodon was practiced by Homo floresiensis. The oldest fossils of Stegodon in Asia date to the Late Miocene, around 8-11 million years ago, with
6204-405: The educated and official world, Latin continued without its natural spoken base. Moreover, this Latin spread into lands that had never spoken Latin, such as the Germanic and Slavic nations. It became useful for international communication between the member states of the Holy Roman Empire and its allies. Without the institutions of the Roman Empire that had supported its uniformity, Medieval Latin
6298-420: The elephantid genus Palaeoloxodon dispersed outside of Africa, becoming widely distributed in Eurasia. By the beginning of the Late Pleistocene , proboscideans were represented by around 23 species. Proboscideans underwent a dramatic decline during the Late Pleistocene as part of the Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions , with all remaining non-elephantid proboscideans (including Stegodon , mastodons , and
6392-420: The feet shorter and broader. The feet were originally plantigrade and developed into a digitigrade stance with cushion pads and the sesamoid bone providing support, with this change developing around the common ancestor of Deinotheriidae and Elephantiformes . Members of Elephantiformes which have retracted nasal regions of the skull indicating the development of a trunk, as well as well-developed tusks on
6486-428: The genus are known from Africa and across much of Asia, as far southeast as Timor (with a single record in southeast Europe). The oldest fossils of the genus are found in Late Miocene strata in Asia, likely originating from the more archaic Stegolophodon , subsequently migrating into Africa. While the genus became extinct in Africa during the Pliocene , Stegodon persisted in South, Southeast and Eastern Asia into
6580-456: The genus lack permanent premolars. The tusks are proportionally large, with those of the biggest species being among the largest known tusks in proboscideans, with a particularly large tusk of S. ganesa from the Early Pleistocene of India measured to be 3.89 metres (12.8 ft) long, with an estimated mass of approximately 140 kilograms (310 lb), substantially larger than the largest recorded modern elephant tusk. The Chinese S. zdanskyi
6674-504: The invention of printing and are now published in carefully annotated printed editions, such as the Loeb Classical Library , published by Harvard University Press , or the Oxford Classical Texts , published by Oxford University Press . Latin translations of modern literature such as: The Hobbit , Treasure Island , Robinson Crusoe , Paddington Bear , Winnie the Pooh , The Adventures of Tintin , Asterix , Harry Potter , Le Petit Prince , Max and Moritz , How
6768-704: The language of the Roman Rite . The Tridentine Mass (also known as the Extraordinary Form or Traditional Latin Mass) is celebrated in Latin. Although the Mass of Paul VI (also known as the Ordinary Form or the Novus Ordo) is usually celebrated in the local vernacular language, it can be and often is said in Latin, in part or in whole, especially at multilingual gatherings. It is the official language of
6862-440: The large areas where it had come to be natively spoken. However, even after the fall of Western Rome , Latin remained the common language of international communication , science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the early 19th century, by which time modern languages had supplanted it in common academic and political usage. Late Latin is the literary language from the 3rd century AD onward. No longer spoken as
6956-508: The largest and perhaps the largest land mammal ever, with a fragmentary specimen of the Indian elephant species Palaeoloxodon namadicus only known from a partial femur being speculatively estimated in the same study to have possibly reached a body mass of 22 tonnes (49,000 lb). As with other megaherbivores , including the extinct sauropod dinosaurs, the large size of proboscideans likely developed to allow them to survive on vegetation with low nutritional value. Their limbs grew longer and
7050-590: The late Paleocene of Africa. The Eocene included Numidotherium , Moeritherium and Barytherium from Africa. These animals were relatively small and some, like Moeritherium and Barytherium were probably amphibious. A major event in proboscidean evolution was the collision of Afro-Arabia with Eurasia, during the Early Miocene , around 18-19 million years ago allowing proboscideans to disperse from their African homeland across Eurasia, and later, around 16-15 million years ago into North America across
7144-635: The late Middle Pleistocene of Thailand suggests that these individuals were mixed feeders that consumed a significant amount of C 4 grass. Specimens of Stegodon trigonocephalus from the Early-Middle Pleistocene of Java were found to be mixed feeders to grazers, with a diet similar to that of sympatric Elephas hysudrindicus . The dwarf species from Flores, Stegodon sondaari and Stegodon florensis , are suggested to have been mixed feeders and grazers, respectively, based on stable carbon isotopes. Specimens of Stegodon kaiesensis from
7238-467: The late seventeenth century, when spoken skills began to erode. It then became increasingly taught only to be read. Latin grammar is highly fusional , with classes of inflections for case , number , person , gender , tense , mood , voice , and aspect . The Latin alphabet is directly derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets . Latin remains the official language of the Holy See and
7332-431: The later part of the Roman Republic , up to 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin . It is attested both in inscriptions and in some of the earliest extant Latin literary works, such as the comedies of Plautus and Terence . The Latin alphabet was devised from the Etruscan alphabet . The writing later changed from what was initially either a right-to-left or a boustrophedon script to what ultimately became
7426-421: The less prestigious colloquial registers , attested in inscriptions and some literary works such as those of the comic playwrights Plautus and Terence and the author Petronius . While often called a "dead language", Latin did not undergo language death . By the 6th to 9th centuries, natural language change eventually resulted in Latin as a vernacular language evolving into distinct Romance languages in
7520-450: The longest lower tusks ever recorded being from the primitive elephantid Stegotetrabelodon which are around 2.2 metres (7.2 ft) long. The molar teeth changed from being replaced vertically as in other mammals to being replaced horizontally in the clade Elephantimorpha . While early Elephantimorpha generally had lower jaws with an elongated mandibular symphysis at the front of the jaw with well developed lower tusks/incisors, from
7614-473: The mainland Chinese S. zdanskyi. In chronological succession these species are Stegodon miensis (4-3 million years ago) Stegodon protoaurorae (3-2 million years ago) and Stegodon aurorae , (2-1 million years ago) which show a progressive size reduction through time, possibly as a result of reducing land area of the Japanese archipelago. The latest and smallest species S. aurorae is estimated to be 25%
7708-542: The mammutid "Mammut" borsoni found in Greece, with some mammoth tusks likely weighing over 200 kilograms (440 lb). The lower tusks are generally smaller than the upper tusks, but could grow to large sizes in some species, like in Deinotherium (which lacks upper tusks), where they could grow over 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) long, the amebelodontid Konobelodon has lower tusks 1.61 metres (5.3 ft) long, with
7802-424: The oldest fossils of the genus in Africa being around 7-6 million years old. Stegodon became extinct in Africa during the late Pliocene, around 3 million years ago suggested to be the result of expansion of grassland habitats. The Javanese species Stegodon trigonocephalus became extinct around 130-80,000 years ago during the latest Middle Pleistocene -early Late Pleistocene ( Marine Isotope Stage 5 ) following
7896-501: The only record of the genus in Europe. Indeterminate remains are also known from the Early Pleistocene and early Middle Pleistocene of Israel. Remains at a number of sites suggest that humans (in a broad sense, including archaic humans ) interacted with Stegodon . At a cave deposit on Gele Mountain near Chongqing in southwest China, a mandible of Stegodon orientalis was used to make a handaxe , with dating suggesting
7990-466: The other varieties, as it was largely separated from the unifying influences in the western part of the Empire. Spoken Latin began to diverge into distinct languages by the 9th century at the latest, when the earliest extant Romance writings begin to appear. They were, throughout the period, confined to everyday speech, as Medieval Latin was used for writing. For many Italians using Latin, though, there
8084-425: The placement of the genus Stegodon among other proboscideans, based on hyoid characteristics: Mammut americanum (American mastodon ) Gomphotherium sp. Stegodon zdanskyi Loxodonta africana ( African bush elephant ) Elephas maximus ( Asian elephant ) Mammuthus columbi ( Columbian mammoth ) An indeterminate Stegodon molar of an uncertain locality and age is known from Greece, representing
8178-499: The size of its mainland ancestor with a body mass of around 2,122 kilograms (4,678 lb). S. aurorae also shows morphological straits associated with dwarfism, like shortened limbs. Like modern elephants, but unlike more primitive proboscideans, Stegodon is thought to have chewed using a proal movement (a forward stroke from the back to the front) of the lower jaws. This jaw movement is thought to have evolved independently in elephants and stegodontids. Stegodon populations from
8272-541: The size of mainland Stegodon species, with a body mass of 250 kilograms (550 lb). Sometimes the same island was colonised multiple times by Stegodon, as in Flores , where the Early Pleistocene strongly dwarfed species Stegodon sondaari , which was 120 cm (3.9 ft) tall at the shoulder and weighed about 350–400 kilograms (770–880 lb), was replaced by the species Stegodon florensis during
8366-601: The upper and lower jaws. The skull grew larger, especially the cranium, while the neck shortened to provide better support for the skull. The increase in size led to the development and elongation of the mobile trunk to provide reach. The number of premolars , incisors and canines decreased. The cheek teeth (molars and premolars) became larger and more specialised. In Elephantiformes, the second upper incisor and lower incisor were transformed into ever growing tusks . The tusks are proportionally heavy for their size, being primarily composed of dentine . In primitive proboscideans,
8460-441: The younger later only juveniles are present. Bones at the site display cut marks indicating butchery, and are thought to have been accumulated at the site by people, likely by hunting or possibly scavenging in the case of the large adults found in the older layer. At Liang Bua cave on Flores dating to around 80-50,000 years ago, remains of the dwarf Stegodon species Stegodon florensis are associated with stone tools produced by
8554-413: Was free to develop on its own, there is no reason to suppose that the speech was uniform either diachronically or geographically. On the contrary, Romanised European populations developed their own dialects of the language, which eventually led to the differentiation of Romance languages . Late Latin is a kind of written Latin used in the 3rd to 6th centuries. This began to diverge from Classical forms at
8648-496: Was much more liberal in its linguistic cohesion: for example, in classical Latin sum and eram are used as auxiliary verbs in the perfect and pluperfect passive, which are compound tenses. Medieval Latin might use fui and fueram instead. Furthermore, the meanings of many words were changed and new words were introduced, often under influence from the vernacular. Identifiable individual styles of classically incorrect Latin prevail. Renaissance Latin, 1300 to 1500, and
8742-441: Was no complete separation between Italian and Latin, even into the beginning of the Renaissance . Petrarch for example saw Latin as a literary version of the spoken language. Medieval Latin is the written Latin in use during that portion of the post-classical period when no corresponding Latin vernacular existed, that is from around 700 to 1500 AD. The spoken language had developed into the various Romance languages; however, in
8836-482: Was shut down in June 2019), and Vatican Radio & Television, all of which broadcast news segments and other material in Latin. A variety of organisations, as well as informal Latin 'circuli' ('circles'), have been founded in more recent times to support the use of spoken Latin. Moreover, a number of university classics departments have begun incorporating communicative pedagogies in their Latin courses. These include
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