Which order of mammals includes elephants?

Which order of mammals includes elephants? The answer is Proboscidea.

Proboscidea is the mammalian order containing elephants and their extinct relatives. Today, the order includes three recognised living elephant species: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. Mammoths, mastodons, gomphotheres and deinotheres were also proboscideans, although they are extinct.

The name refers to the characteristic trunk, or proboscis, that evolved in many later members of the group. Proboscideans also became known for tusks, which are modified incisors. Early members were much smaller than modern elephants; some of the earliest proboscideans lived in Africa roughly 60 million years ago.

A common mix-up is confusing an order with a family. Elephantidae is the family containing living elephants and several extinct elephant lineages, whereas Proboscidea is the broader order. Sirenia, which includes manatees and dugongs, is a related Afrotherian order, not the order of elephants.