[2] It was named after Hans Reck, a German paleontologist and geologist who had done the initial surveying of the gorge in 1913, and had collected a considerable number of fossils from the locality.

[3] Michel Beden's publications during the 1980s on Elephas recki primarily focusing on molar morphology[4][5][6] identified five successive subspecies, from oldest to youngest with ages according to Sanders (2023)[3]: For decades after Beden's publications, his view of "Elephas recki" as a succession of subspecies was accepted as orthodoxy.

[3] The traditional definition of the species sensu lato including the 5 historically recognised subspecies has been termed the "Elephas recki complex".

A large mostly complete male specimen of P. recki atavus[3] from Koobi Fora, Kenya, suggested to have been approximately 40 years old when it died, was estimated in a 2016 study to have measured 4.27 metres (14.0 ft) tall at the shoulder and weighed 12.3 tonnes (27,000 lb),[10] with the tusks of some P. recki individuals reaching 4 metres (13 ft) in length, and masses likely considerably in excess of 100 kilograms (220 lb).

[7] Over time the molar teeth of P. recki show an increasing number of lamellae, and taller crown height (hypsodonty).

In some cases like Olduvai FLK, these are likely coincidental, but in others which bears cut marks, these likely represent evidence of butchery by archaic humans.

The P. recki specimen from Gesher Bnot Ya'akov is associated with an Acheulean stone handaxe and other bifaced tools, and displays cut marks and fracture marks indicative of butchery, though the fracturing of the skull, which has been suggested to be the result of an attempt to extract the brain, may alternatively be the result of postmortem trampling.