Name:
Gomphotherium
(Welded beast).
Phonetic: Gom-foe-fee-ree-um.
Named By: Burmeister - 1837.
Synonyms: Genomastodon, Ocalientinus,
Serridentinus, Tatabelodon, Tetrabelodon, Trilophodon,
Trobelodon.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia,
Proboscidea, Gomphotheriidae.
Species: G. anguirvalis,
G.angustidens, G. annectens, G. brewsterensis, G.
calvertense, G. connexus, G. nebrascensis, G. obscurum,
G. osborni, G. productum, G. rugosidens, G.
simplicidens, G. willistoni, G. wimani.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Around 3 meters high at the shoulder.
Known locations: Across Africa, Eurasia and North
America.
Time period: Serravallian of the Miocene through to
Zanclean of the Pliocene.
Fossil representation: Hundreds of specimens.
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 modern elephants.
The upper tusks also retained an enamel coating which is lacking in
modern elephants. Two additional tusks protruded from the tip of the
lower jay to form a kind of ‘tooth shovel’ which was likely used
for rooting up plants.
There
are no soft tissue remains of a trunk, but Gomphotherium
is still
thought to have possessed one since the skull is shaped to allow for
the attachment of one, as well as the fact that Gomphotherium
would
have probably been physically unable to feed without one. The length
of the trunk can vary greatly in artistic renderings but
palaeontologists believe that the trunk would have been on the shorter
side because of the low profile of the elongated skull. Beyond this
there is currently no way of knowing exactly how long the trunk was,
but logic would dictate that it would need to be long enough to be of
practical use. This would mean at least long enough to reach the
plants scooped up on the bottom tusks and long enough to pick up
water, although Gomphotherium might have been
able to ‘cheat’ a
little here by wading into watering holes to reduce the distance
between the end of the trunk and the surface of the water.
Alternatively Gomphotherium may have been able
to scoop a little
water with its teeth by flicking its head back before the water ran off.
Gomphotherium
was one of the most successful of all the prehistoric elephants with
the oldest fossils being known from North America and later ones being
discovered as far as Western Europe and Africa. Usually Gomphotherium
is associated with wetland ecosystems near bodies of water since the
softer ground associated with these areas would allow for easier
digging with the teeth. When it came to eating, Gomphotherium
had
fewer molars than earlier elephants, but those it had had higher
ridges to make them more efficient at grinding.
Further reading
- Description of a new species of mastodon, Gomphotherium
elegans, from
the Pleistocene of Kansas - Proceedings of The United States National
Museum 53/2198 - Oliver Perry Hay - 1917.
- [Miocene mastodonts of Lantian and Lintung, Shensi]. - Professional
Papers of Stratigraphy and Palaeontology 7:136-142 - H.-C. Chang
& R.-J. Zhai - 1978.
- Growth increments in Gomphotherium tusks and
implications for late
Miocene climate change in North America. - Palaeogeography,
Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 156 - David L. Fox - 2000.
- Stable Isotope Ecology of a Late Miocene Population of Gomphotherium
productus (Mammalia, Proboscidea) from Port of Entry Pit,
Oklahoma,
USA. - PALAIOS, v. 16, p. 279-293. - David L. Fox & Daniel C.
Fisher - 2001.
- Dietary reconstruction of Miocene Gomphotherium
(Mammalia,
Proboscidea) from the Great Plains region, USA, based on the carbon
isotope composition of tusk and molar enamel. - Palaeogeography,
Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology vol 206 - David L. Fox &
Daniel C. Fisher - 2004.
- Feeding preferences of Gomphotherium subtapiroideum
(Proboscidea,
Mammalia) from the Miocene of Sandelzhausen (Northern Alpine Foreland
Basin, southern Germany) through life and geological time: evidence
from dental microwear analysis. - Pal�ontologische Zeitschrift, Volume
84, Issue 1, pp 205-215. - Ivan Calandra, Ursula B. G�hlich &
Gildas Merceron - 2010.
- L'odontologie de Gomphotherium angustidens
(Cuvier, 1817)
(Proboscidea, Mammalia) : donn�es issues du gisement d'En P�jouan
(Mioc�ne moyen du Gers, France). - Geodiversitas 36(1):35-115. - Pascal
Tassy - 2014.
- A new species of Gomphotherium (Proboscidea,
Mammalia) from China and
the evolution of Gomphotherium in Eurasia. -
Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology. 37 (3): e1318284. - Shi-Qi Wang, Yu Li, Jaroon
Duangkrayom, Xiang-Wen Yang, Wen He & Shan-Qin Chen - 2017.