Airavata and elephants born in his family, according to tradition, have four tusks. True, it is not clear what exactly makes Airavata a „divine“ animal — four tusks or a description of its history in the epic and Purāṇa?

In the early Miocene (13,000 – 3 million years ago) in North America, Asia, Europe and Africa lived elephant-like animals of the proboscis order with four tusks — Gomphotherium. In 1971, a complete Gomphotherium skeleton was discovered in Bavaria, Germany.