Figure 1

P. falconeri GR. (a) sample of the aged tibiae: 1,2: neonates (CAT-106; CAT-108); 3: one year (ELEPH1-T); 4: two years (CAT-124); 5: 3,5 years (CAT-128); 6,7,8: 4 years (CAT-132, Cat 133, ELEPH2-T); 9,10: 7 years (CAT 139, Cat 140); 11,12: 9 years (CAT-45, 142); 13: 12 years (ELEPH3-T); 14: 13 years (CAT-46); 15: 14 years (CAT-179); 16: 18 years (T-181);17: 23 years (Roma 6) (Graphic scale 10 cm). (b) Scaling of mean body mass GR from birth to maturity (MBMGR, expressed in grams/day) in respect to adult body mass, in log10, using phylogenetic generalized least square regressions (PGLS), in a large sample (n = 106) of species of ungulates (see Supplementary material 8 for results of PGLS). Blue dots: ungulates; red dots: P. falconeri (body mass from tibia LTC; Supplementary material 2; Supplementary Tables 2, 3), black dot: Elephas maximus; orange square: L. africana; data from PanTheria³³. (c) distribution of residuals of the PGLS log10MBMGRB-M (adult-neonatal body mass, gr/age from birth in days) (y) regressed against log10 adult body mass (x). Extant elephants (orange square: L. africana, black dot: E. maximus) are within the lower limit of adult body mass-neonatal body mass GR in ungulates; P. falconeri (red dot) corresponds to the body mass estimation of tibia LTC (Supplementary material 2). (d) Von Bertalanffy growth curves of diaphyseal lengths of the tibiae (TDL) of L. africana (black dots and black curve) and P. falconeri (red dots; black and red curves). P. falconeri growth model 1 (short black curve) is based on ontogenetic data of specimens directly aged by skeletochronology (red dots). The long red curve corresponds to model 2 and is based on the inferred minimal longevity (Table 1; “Materials and methods”) and the maximal value of TDL.