[1] Fossils attributed to P. naumanni are also known from China, though the status of these specimens is unresolved, and some authors regard them as belonging to separate species.

German geologist Heinrich Edmund Naumann researched and reported these fossils in “Ueber japanische Elephanten der Vorzeit” (1882).

Historically, some Japanese researchers continued to place the species in the genus Elephas (which contains the living Asian elephant).

[7] It is suggested that it preferred temperate forested habitats, including deciduous broad-leaved trees and conifers, and is thought to have inhabited a wide range of altitudes, from sea level to over 1,000 metres (3,300 ft).

[4] Dental microwear analysis of a specimen from Yamanashi Prefecture suggests that it had a diet heavy in coarse browse like bark and twigs.

Bones of P. naumanni alongside those of the extinct giant deer Sinomegaceros yabei at Lake Nojiri in Nagano Prefecture dating to approximately 37,900 years Before Present, have been found together with many lithic and bone tool artifacts, suggesting that the elephants were butchered by humans at the site.