It was originally described by Camille Arambourg in 1952 based on remains found around Lake Ichkeul in north Tunisia as a species of Elephas (which contains the living Asian elephant).

[2] Some authors have argued that the species should be placed in Loxodonta (which contains living African elephants), reflecting the difficulty in distinguishing the teeth of early elephantids.

The skull and lower jaws of an old adult male mammoth, now apparently lost, referred to M. africanavus, has been reported from Garet et Tir, Algeria, dating to the Late Pliocene.

The specimen, though somewhat damaged and distorted when described unambiguously represents a mammoth, with a tall skull over 1.45 metres (4.8 ft) in height with an especially short basicranium, and narrow palate.

[1] Specimens intermediate between M. subplanifrons and M. africanavus have been reported from the Late Pliocene Hadar Formation, Ethiopia, dating to around 3.5 million years ago.