An elephant's trunk is composed of 17 muscles—eight on each side plus one for its nasal cavity—controlled by tens of thousands of muscle fibers commanded by up to 60,000 facial neurons.

The elephant has a secret hiding right on its nose. Its famous trunk, full of muscle and devoid of bone, can move in a virtually infinite number of directions and is capable of performing an array ...

A new study suggests that an elephant's muscles aren't the only way it stretches its trunk -- its folded skin also plays an important role. The combination of muscle and skin gives the animal the ...

And at the trunk tip, it’s the skin that does most of the straining, not the muscle, mathematical modeling experiments suggest. Scientists have long studied the muscles in elephant trunks ( SN ...

A multidisciplinary team of scientists has conducted a study of Asian and African elephant wrinkles to learn more about their ...

(A trunk has some 46,000 muscles; the human body has 600 to 700.) Yet unlike an anemone or octopus tentacle, an elephant’s thick outer skin puts limits on the trunk’s movement.

An elephant’s trunk is a remarkable organ: a fusion of nose and upper lip, capable of movement via a dense network of muscles. It’s strong enough to lift a log, and sensitive enough to perform ...

Unlike an elephant’s trunk, the machines can’t do both. Explore. Search Saturday, May 24, 2025. ... If they were wrapped with a protective skin, like an elephant’s muscle-filled trunk, ...

How an Elephant’s Wrinkles Reveal Whether It Is Right- or Left-Trunked A new study sheds light on the muscular, dexterous appendage, suggesting trunk wrinkles are more important than many people ...

Video, 00:01:29 How many muscles are in an elephant's trunk? Section. News. Published. 26 minutes ago. 1:29. Up Next. Moment Nasa astronauts begin journey back to Earth.

First, the African forest elephant, a third species, wasn’t included in the analysis. She says those animals would have provided another point of reference for the development and use of the trunk.