what are elephants here for?

[DITTLIEDOBOP]

if elephants where to become extinct, then what would human life be like?

[woofgang]

well one thing elephants are not here for is to improve the human condition...they are here to be elephants

[undercovers]

The Dumbo cartoons would make children cry...

[andy hughes]

Human life would be diminished yet again. These wonderful animals are a direct link with our dinosaur ancesters, and should be cherished and protected for the wonder of nature that they are.

[inferno]

Andy Hughes - elephants are mammals and as such are not a direct link with our "dinosaur ancestors". In fact, for the same reason, dinosaurs are not our ancestors. It was the dying out of dinosaurs that provided the enviromental niches that enabled our small and insignificant mammal ancestors to evolve into the the range we currently have, including such giants as the elephant.

[MrsCheeks]

personally my life would be no different as I live in Scotland and there ain't much call for elephants contributing to either the environment or economy up here.

[Philtaz]

Inferno, But aren't elephants linked to mammoths, which were around the same time as dinosaurs? Not being facetious with this, just checking some facts which may need proving, that's all.

[bernardo]

No - the dinosaurs died out 65,000,000 years ago, and mammoths only lived a few hundred thousand years ago.

[inferno]

Just to add to bernado, the mammoth first appeared about 1.6 million years ago and probably died out about 10,000 -7,000 years ago. Incidentally there is a growing view that dinosuars didn't entirely die out - some scientists believe that birds evolved from some species of dinosaur.