Palaeoloxodon recki

== Relationship with humans ==

== Relationship with humans ==

At several sites across Africa, remains of ''P. recki'' have been found associated with stone tools. In some cases like Olduvai FLK, these are likely coincidental, but in others which bears cut marks, these likely represent evidence of butchery by [[archaic humans]]. Sites containing ''P. recki'' remains with cut marks and/or stone tools include Upper Bed II at the Bell's Korongo site in Olduvai Gorge, dating to around 1.35 million years ago, which has been suggested to be the oldest site in the world with reliable evidence of elephant butchery, associated with [[Oldowan]]-type stone tools, and the Olorgesailie Basin Member 1 Site 15 in Kenya, dated to 992–974,000 years ago, and the Nadung'a 4 site near Lake Turkana, Kenya, dating to approximately 700,000 years ago. The Barogali site in Djibouti, dating to 1.6-1.3 million years ago, where a disassociated specimen of ''P. recki'' (suggested to be ''E. recki atavus'') was found with numerous stone tools (probably Oldowan) created onsite, has also been suggested to be a butchery site. The ''P. recki'' specimen from Gesher Bnot Ya'akov is associated with an [[Acheulean]] stone [[handaxe]] and other bifaced tools, and displays cut marks and fracture marks indicative of butchery, though the fracturing of the skull, which has been suggested to be the result of an attempt to extract the brain, may alternatively be the result of postmortem [[trampling]].{{Cite journal |last=Haynes |first=Gary |date=March 2022 |title=Late Quaternary Proboscidean Sites in Africa and Eurasia with Possible or Probable Evidence for Hominin Involvement |journal=Quaternary |language=en |volume=5 |issue=1 |page=18 |doi=10.3390/quat5010018 |issn=2571-550X |doi-access=free |bibcode=2022Quat....5...18H }}

At several sites across Africa, remains of ''P. recki'' have been found associated with stone tools. In some cases these are likely coincidental, but in others which bears cut marks, these likely represent evidence of butchery by [[archaic humans]]. The oldest such site is Emiliano Aguirre Korongo in Olduvai Gorge, where a juvenile ''P. recki'' skeleton is associated with stone tools dating to around 1.8 million ago, though the evidence for butchery at the site has been considered equivocal.{{Cite journal |last=Dominguez-Rodrigo |first=Manuel |last2=Baquedano |first2=Enrique |last3=Moclan |first3=Abel |last4=Uribelarrea |first4=David |last5=Corre-Cano |first5=Jose Angel |last6=Diez-Martin |first6=Fernando |last7=Velazquez-tello |first7=Alejandro |last8=Organista |first8=Elia |last9=Mendez-Quintas |first9=Eduardo |last10=Vegara-Riquelme |first10=Marina |last11=Gidna |first11=Agness |last12=Mabulla |first12=Audax |date=2026-03-18 |title=Earliest evidence of elephant butchery at Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania) reveals the evolutionary impact of early human megafaunal exploitation |url=https://elifesciences.org/articles/108298 |journal=eLife |language=en |volume=14 |doi=10.7554/eLife.108298.5 |issn=2050-084X}} Other containing ''P. recki'' remains with cut marks and/or stone tools include Upper Bed II at the Bell's Korongo site in Olduvai Gorge, dating to around 1.35 million years ago, which has been suggested to be the oldest site in the world with reliable evidence of elephant butchery, associated with [[Oldowan]]-type stone tools, and the Olorgesailie Basin Member 1 Site 15 in Kenya, dated to 992–974,000 years ago, and the Nadung'a 4 site near Lake Turkana, Kenya, dating to approximately 700,000 years ago. The Barogali site in Djibouti, dating to 1.6-1.3 million years ago, where a disassociated specimen of ''P. recki'' (suggested to be ''E. recki atavus'') was found with numerous stone tools (probably Oldowan) created onsite, has also been suggested to be a butchery site. The ''P. recki'' specimen from Gesher Bnot Ya'akov is associated with an [[Acheulean]] stone [[handaxe]] and other bifaced tools, and displays cut marks and fracture marks indicative of butchery, though the fracturing of the skull, which has been suggested to be the result of an attempt to extract the brain, may alternatively be the result of postmortem [[trampling]].{{Cite journal |last=Haynes |first=Gary |date=March 2022 |title=Late Quaternary Proboscidean Sites in Africa and Eurasia with Possible or Probable Evidence for Hominin Involvement |journal=Quaternary |language=en |volume=5 |issue=1 |page=18 |doi=10.3390/quat5010018 |issn=2571-550X |doi-access=free |bibcode=2022Quat....5...18H }}

At the T69 Complex in Olduvai Gorge, dating to around 1.5 million years ago, archaic humans using Acheulean tools [[knapped]] ''P. cf recki'' bones along with those of the large hippo ''[[Hippopotamus gorgops|Hippopotamus cf. gorgops]]'' to create bone tools. As of 2025, these are currently the oldest known bone tools.{{Cite journal |last1=de la Torre |first1=Ignacio |last2=Doyon |first2=Luc |last3=Benito-Calvo |first3=Alfonso |last4=Mora |first4=Rafael |last5=Mwakyoma |first5=Ipyana |last6=Njau |first6=Jackson K. |last7=Peters |first7=Renata F. |last8=Theodoropoulou |first8=Angeliki |last9=d'Errico |first9=Francesco |date=5 March 2025 |title=Systematic bone tool production at 1.5 million years ago |journal=Nature |volume=640 |issue=8057 |pages=130–134 |language=en |doi=10.1038/s41586-025-08652-5 |issn=0028-0836|doi-access=free |pmid=40044851 |pmc=11964934 |bibcode=2025Natur.640..130D }}

At the T69 Complex in Olduvai Gorge, dating to around 1.5 million years ago, archaic humans using Acheulean tools [[knapped]] ''P. cf recki'' bones along with those of the large hippo ''[[Hippopotamus gorgops|Hippopotamus cf. gorgops]]'' to create bone tools. As of 2025, these are currently the oldest known bone tools.{{Cite journal |last1=de la Torre |first1=Ignacio |last2=Doyon |first2=Luc |last3=Benito-Calvo |first3=Alfonso |last4=Mora |first4=Rafael |last5=Mwakyoma |first5=Ipyana |last6=Njau |first6=Jackson K. |last7=Peters |first7=Renata F. |last8=Theodoropoulou |first8=Angeliki |last9=d'Errico |first9=Francesco |date=5 March 2025 |title=Systematic bone tool production at 1.5 million years ago |journal=Nature |volume=640 |issue=8057 |pages=130–134 |language=en |doi=10.1038/s41586-025-08652-5 |issn=0028-0836|doi-access=free |pmid=40044851 |pmc=11964934 |bibcode=2025Natur.640..130D }}