[1] Several extinct species have been identified as belonging to the genus, extending back to the Pliocene or possibly the late Miocene.

Relationships of living and extinct elephantids based on DNA, after Palkopoulou et al.

[7] The oldest record of the genus outside of Africa is Elephas planifrons which is known from the Late Pliocene of the Indian subcontinent, around 3.6 million years ago.

[9] The earliest fossils of the ancestor of the modern Asian elephant, Elephas hysudricus date to the beginning of the Pleistocene, around 2.6 million years ago, with remains found on the Indian subcontinent.

[11] The scientific name Elephas was proposed by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 who described the genus and an elephant from Ceylon.