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We use semi-analytical modelling techniques to investigate the progenitor morphologies of present day ellipticals. We find that, independent of the environment, the fraction of mergers of bulge dominated galaxies (early-types) increases with time. The last major merger of bright present day ellipticals with M₁ -21 is preferentially between bulge dominated galaxies, while those with M₁ -20 have mainly experienced last major mergers between a bulge dominated and a disk dominated galaxy. Independent of specific model assumptions, more than 50% of present day elliptical in clusters with MB -18 had last major mergers which are not of spirals as usually expected within the standard merger scenario.
Khochfar et al. (2003) studied this question.