Jean Engelmann, age 13, of Tucson, Arizona, for her question:
Are there bones in an elephant's trunk?
The supple motions of an elephant's trunk remind one of the motions of a snaky spine. Backbones are strong and bendable because they are supported by interlocking bony vertebrae. It seems logical to expect a similar bony support in an elephant's trunk, especially when one learns that it is strong enough to lift a 1,500 pound log. But no all that mobile maneuvering is done with muscles.
An elephant skeleton has the same number of bones as a cow's or a cat's, though they are much bigger. The number of bones in his thick stubby neck equals those in the giraffe's elongated neck.. His remote ancestors found this stubby neck a problem when it came to grazing and browzing. They solved this by developing long, mobile trunks. Actually, the fantastic elephantine trunk is a six foot extension merged from the upper lip and lower nose. In mammals, lips and nose tips are boneless features, and nature added no inner bony structure when these features were modified to form a trunk.
Actually, it is a miraculous network of hundreds of supple, interlocking muscles. The stronger ones are at the top, the smaller, more delicate ones are in the tapering tip. Working together, the team of trunk muscles can lift, and hoist almost a ton ¬or daintily grasp a peanut. The amazingly efficient appendage is a long, strong boneless arm tipped with either one or two dainty grasping fingers.
The nostrils at the tip open into two nose tunnels that run all the way up the inside of the trunk to the enormous throat. One would expect such a super nose to be a super smeller. And so it is. The elephant's eyesight is rather poor and his hearing only fair, but no bther creature can equal his sense of smell. Naturally, he makes the best of it. His sensitive trunk is in constant motion, weaving and waving to sniff the wind and weather, plus the scent of distant animals. As he walks, the trunk hangs down, waving to test the ground with its sense of touch.
On account of his tall bulky body and stubby neck, food gathering would be impossible without his wondrous trunk. He stretches it to grasp a fistful of greenery and curves it under to stuff food into his mouth. He uses his nostrils to suck up 1 1/2 gallons of drinking water at a time and squirt it down his throat. He also uses his handy super nose to squirt mud, dust and showers of water over his body.
Elephants like elephants and use their sensitive trunks to express their family affections. Adults share trunk caresses and baby elephants get constant trunk fondling from mothers and aunties. On the other hand, an angry bull often uses his trunk to oust an annoying intruder. When aggravated, he has been known to hoist a man and toss him 40 feet through the air.
In zoology, a proboscis is a long nosy snout and we use the word humorously to refer to an oversized human nose. Elephants belong in the Order Proboscidae, and nobody can challenge their right to the name. They also are called pachyderms, a word meaning thick skinned. Elephant skin may be an inch thick, but it is very sensitive, especially to cold. The skin on the underside of his trunk is particularly delicate and sensitive.