Apparently elephants, or at least elephanty things, have been behaving like elephants for around 8 million years. Thought it was interesting. YMMV.
![parrot](https://www.councilofexmuslims.com/Smileys/custom/parrot.gif)
Full article here:
Huge set of fossil tracks preserves march of the ancient elephantsIn the desert of the United Arab Emirates, there is an unusual series of flat discs imprinted in the sand. Each one is about 40 centimetres wide, and they snake off into the distance in several parallel lines, for hundreds of metres.
They are tracks. They were made by a herd of at least 14 early elephants, marching across the land between 6 and 8 million years ago. The track-makers are long dead, but in the intervening time, nothing has buried their tracks or eroded them away. Today, their social lives are still recorded in their fossilised footsteps.
The site, known as Mleisa 1, provides the oldest evidence for proboscideans ? elephants and their close relatives ? living in a herd. Covering the area of seven football fields, it?s also probably the largest fossil trackway ever discovered, for any animal. When these beasts strolled across the landscape, the entire area would have been cut through by a river system. Rather than the dry sand of today, it would have been lush and green.
?It?s really an amazing site,? says Brian Kraatz from the Western University of Health Sciences, who was involved in the study. ?I wish we had the ability to transport people there so they can stand in the middle of it at sunset. You can?t help but find yourself looking around to see if you can catch a last glimpse of the herd trotting off.?
Also, a very cool zoomable panorama of the site is here:
http://gigapan.org/gigapans/78542The site is basically just around the corner from Doha, if anyone is in the UAE and wants to check it out.
![Afro](https://www.councilofexmuslims.com/Smileys/custom/afro.gif)