Short answers, pulled from the story.
The trunk of an elephant contains up to 150,000 separate muscle fascicles. This complex organ has no bone and little fat, allowing the animal to perform tasks ranging from cracking a peanut shell to lifting objects weighing up to 300 kilograms.
The earliest members of the order Proboscidea, such as Eritherium, appeared in the Paleocene of Africa around 60 million years ago. These early proboscideans were much smaller than living elephants, with a body mass of around 40 kilograms.
Ivory was banned internationally in 1990 following the listing of the African elephant under Appendix I by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in 1989. Despite these bans, poaching continues to be a major threat, with 650 elephants in Bouba Njida National Park, Cameroon, slaughtered by Chadian raiders in February 2012.
Elephant infrasonic rumbles can travel over 10 kilometers. These calls have a frequency of 14 to 24 Hz for Asian elephants and 15 to 35 Hz for African elephants, allowing for long-distance communication that is often inaudible to humans.
The Carthaginian general Hannibal took African elephants across the Alps during his war with the Romans in 218 BC. This event dates back to at least 1500 BC when elephants were used as working animals, with the practice of using elephants in warfare extending back to that era.