Elephants and the Book of Mormon

Many people scoff about elephants being mentioned in the Book of Mormon.  For over a century, many have insisted that elephants (mastodons and mammoths) died out thousands of years ago during the last Ice Age.  But did any elephants or elephant-like creatures survive?

Wikipedia describes Gomphothere, an ancient elephant that lived in the Americas.
  Key points regarding the Gomphothere are:
1. They began in North America and migrated to South America.
2. Their remains are commonly found in South American Paleo-Indian sites.
3. They had four tusks.

Wikipedia states: "From about 5 million years ago onwards, they were slowly replaced by modern elephants, but the last South American species did not finally become extinct until possibly as recently as 400 CE (AD)." (cite: Palmer, D., ed (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. pp. 239–242.ISBN 1-84028-152-9.)

This shows the death of an elephant-like animal at the exact time of the destruction of the Nephites. Given that the descriptions of the elephants occurs primarily with the Jaredites, who lived over 1000 years before 400 AD, it is possible that the final extinction occurred due to the great wars and destructions among the people who used them.

Regardless of why the animals went extinct, there is now sufficient evidence that elephant-like animals did live in the Americas during the Book of Mormon period.