News Animals

To tell a right-trunked elephant from a lefty, check the wrinkles

Trunk wrinkles form exponentially fast long before birth

A baby elephat huddles under the feet of its mother.

Even a baby elephant, like this newborn Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), has a well-wrinkled trunk, which is so much more useful than storybook smooth forms.

Paul Gilham/Getty Images

By Susan Milius

There’s a Sherlock Holmes tale in here somewhere: A clever observer could check wrinkles and whiskers on an elephant trunk to catch a left-trunker pachyderm perp masquerading as a righty, thanks to a new study of trunk skin wrinkles.