In Depth The type genus of the Gomphotheriidae, Gomphotherium is quite a bizarre prehistoric elephant that is quite different from the ones that we know today. Gomphotherium still had two tusks protruding down from the upper jaw, but they were recurved, which means that they gently curved towards the body rather than away like in … Read more
In Depth Further Reading Further reading- The Dance of Tusks: Rediscovery of Lower Incisors in the Pan-American Proboscidean Cuvieronius hyodon Revises Incisor Evolution in Elephantimorpha. – PLOS ONE. – Dimila Moth�, Marco P. Ferretti, Leonardo S. Avilla & S. Leonardo – 2016.
The woolly mammoth of the ice age Mammuthus primigenius is more popularly known as the woolly mammoth that today is regarded as the poster animal for the ice age, a colloquial term for the Pleistocene period which saw a series of glaciations across the upper latitudes of the Northern hemisphere and an overall reduction in global … Read more
In Depth Although the name Deinotherium translates to mean ‘Terrible beast’, this definition somewhat belies the true nature of Deinotherium as a prehistoric elephant. Compared to today’s living elephants however, Deinotherium is the type genus of the more distantly related group called the deinotheres. Deinotherium remains one of the largest elephants in the fossil record, … Read more
In Depth Further Reading – Tooth morphology of Mammuthus meridionalis from the Southern bight of the North Sea and from several localities in the Netherlands – Hans van Essen – 2003. – Mammuthus meridionalis (Nesti, 1825) from Campo di Pile (L’Aquila, Abruzzo, Central Italy) – S. Agostini, M.R. Palombo M.A. Rossi, E. Di Canzio & … Read more
In Depth Mammuthus columbi is better known as the Columbian mammoth, although it is not actually named after the country Colombia that is in South America, but after the province of British Columbia in Canada. The Columbian mammoth appears to have been one of the most common mammoths roaming North America during the Pleistocene, and is … Read more
In Depth Sinomastodon is a genus of elephant that lived in Asia between the Miocene and early Pleistocene. Further Reading - Mastodons (Proboscidea, Mammalia) from the LateNeogene and Early Pleistocene of the People’s Republic of China. - HistoricalAccount. Mainzer geowiss, mitt., 15, pp. 119–181. - H. Tobien, G. F. Chen & Y. Q. Li - … Read more
In Depth Konobelodon is a genus of amebelodont that lived across much of the world during the Miocene. Further Reading - Rediagnosis of the Genus Amebelodon (Mammalia, Proboscidea, Gomphotheriidae), with a New Subgenus and Species, Amebelodon (Konobelodon) britti. - Journal of Paleontology 64(6):1032-1040. - W. D. Lambert - 1990. - The Eurasian occurrence of the … Read more
In Depth During the Pleistocene there was an island called Santa Rosae off the southern coast of California between the areas that are today known as Point Conception and Ventura. At some point, perhaps when the sea levels were particularly low, Columbian mammoths (M. columbi) crossed over from the mainland to colonise Santa Rosae. Although large … Read more
In Depth A relative to other gomphothere elephants like Gomphotherium and Ambelodon, Platybelodon also had a pair of forward facing tusks in the lower jaw that were shaped into a form of shovel-like structure. Like with its relatives, it is believed that Platybelodon used these tusks as feeding aids for uprooting plants and stripping bark. … Read more