Elephants are large quadrupedal [[mammals]] native to [[Africa]] and [[India]]. The elephant is noted for its long trunk, or proboscis, a flexible nose strong enough to lift objects.
Elephants are not mentioned directly in the [[Bible]]. According to the creationist view they were created on the sixth day with the other beasts of the earth (Genesis 1:24-25) and survived the Flood on [[Noah\'s Ark]] (Genesis 7:7-8). The Apocryphal book [[1 Maccabees]] mentions thirty-two elephants sent by the Persian king Antiochus to attack [[Judas Machabeus]]. Numerous references are made to [[ivory]], a substance created from their tusks and worth great amounts.
In more recent times, domestic elephants have been used for riding, Polo, carrying heavy loads, and [[war]] elephants.
One of the supposed pieces of evidence against evolution is that scientists cannot decide what elephants could have evolved from. Many scientists point to the idea that elephants share a common ancestor with sea cows and water dwelling hyraxes. Some support for this point of view is that elephants might have used their trunks as snorkels.
In the past, there were many different types of elephants like [[mammoth|mammoths]] and [[mastodon|mastodons]], but most creation scientists say that these species never made it onto the ark and that these species perished with the [[dinosaurs]]{{fact}}. Scientists and scholars agree that Noah could not have trekked all the way to the arctic to collect a pair of mastodons before the earth was flooded, and they all drowned.{{fact}} [[Polar bears ]] and [[penguins ]] survived because both are excellent swimmers and could have swam to floating glaciers and ridden them through the flood.
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