Eating, breathing, smelling, touching, communicating, handling… rare are the attributes which can perform as many functions as an elephant's trunk.
But the operation of this appendix capable of delicately gripping a tuft of grass and of transporting loads of more than 250 kg remains an enigma.
Researchers from the University of Geneva therefore went to South Africa to dissect the movements and trajectories of this horn, using techniques borrowed from animation cinema.
The results of this innovative and at least original work were published a few months ago in the scientific journal
Current Biology
.
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Why more and more elephants are born without their tusks
In 2021, is it possible that science still does not know how the elephant trunk works?
"Oh yes!
Our research has enabled us to understand a lot of things but many questions remain unanswered
, answers, amused, Michel Milinkovitch, professor in the department of genetics and evolution of the faculty of sciences of the university…
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