Elefante de Sabana vs

Loxodonta africana compared with Cocconeis scutellum

Key Differences

Elefante de Sabana is Vulnerable while is Not Evaluated.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Elefante de Sabana
Kingdom	Animalia (Animals)	Chromista (Chromista)
Phylum	Chordata (cordados)	Ochrophyta (Ochrophyta)
Class	Mammalia (mamíferos)	Bacillariophyceae (Bacillariophyceae)
Order	Proboscidea (Elephants)	Achnanthales (Achnanthales)
Family	Elephantidae (Elephants)	Cocconeidaceae
Genus	Loxodonta (African Elephants)	Cocconeis
Species	Loxodonta africana	Cocconeis scutellum

Conservation Status

Elefante de Sabana

VU — Vulnerable

Population: ~415.0K

Trend: Decreasing ↓

NE — Not Evaluated

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Elefante de Sabana
Diet	Herbivore	—
Average Lifespan	65 years	—
Average Length	6.0 m	—
Average Weight	6.0 t	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Elefante de Sabana

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical grasslands and savannas, and flooded grasslands and savannas, among 5 distinct biome types within the Afrotropic biogeographic realm. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Found in Kenya. Currently classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, this species faces significant conservation challenges across its range.

Habitat

Native to Asia and Europe and South America, inhabiting ecosystems characteristic of the region.

Range

Distributed across Brazil, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and Taiwan.

Elefante de Sabana

El elefante africano, el animal terrestre más grande de la Tierra, puede alcanzar 7.000 kg y habita sabanas, bosques y humedales del África subsahariana. Con estructuras sociales complejas lideradas por matriarcas, se comunica mediante infrasonidos, rugidos y contacto físico. Como ingeniero del ecosistema, modela su hábitat arrancando árboles, excavando aguadas y dispersando semillas. Está catalogado como Vulnerable, con poblaciones en declive por la caza furtiva de marfil y la pérdida de hábitat.

Cocconeis scutellum is a marine and brackish-water diatom in the family Cocconeidaceae, one of the most commonly encountered epiphytic diatoms in coastal ecosystems worldwide. The frustule is broadly oval and relatively large for the genus, with robust silica walls bearing coarse transapical striae that give the valve a distinctive, shield-like appearance—a morphology reflected in the species epithet 'scutellum,' Latin for small shield. This species is a strict epiphyte in marine environments, attaching to the surfaces of seagrasses, macroalgae such as Ulva and Zostera, coralline algae, and other benthic substrates in shallow intertidal and subtidal zones. Cocconeis scutellum has been documented from coastal habitats across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, with records from temperate and tropical regions including South America, Europe, and the Indo-Pacific, reflecting its cosmopolitan marine distribution. The species is a basal component of coastal food webs: dense epiphytic biofilms including C. scutellum are grazed by amphipods, gastropods, sea urchins, and small fish, transferring photosynthetically fixed carbon up the food chain. In estuarine environments where freshwater and saltwater mix, C. scutellum may co-occur with freshwater and brackish Cocconeis species, and salinity tolerance experiments indicate the species survives across a broad range of salinities. Its silicon frustules contribute to coastal sediment biosilica content upon cell death. Conservation status is not formally evaluated.