Stegomastodon
| Stegomastodon | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stegomastodon mirificus in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Pliocene to Pleistocene | ||||||||||||
| 5 million years to 300,000 years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Stegomastodon | ||||||||||||
| Pohlig , 1912 | ||||||||||||
Stegomastodon was a genus of Gomphotheriidae and livedin North America from the Upper Miocene to the Pleistocene .
Appearance
Stegomastodon had a relatively short skull and lower jaw compared to previous gomphotherids. The up to 2.4 m long tusks were slightly diverging and mostly curved upwards. The molars were highly complex with conical tips and cement between the cones. The weight of this proboscis was around 6 t.
distribution
Often only one species, Stegomastodon mirificus , is recognized. Occasionally, however, the early forms are considered to be the precursor species Stegomastodon primitivus . The genus is known from the Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene. It was previously believed that Stegomastodon advanced across the Isthmus of Panama to South America and was also present there. Today, however, the South American finds are assigned to the separate genus Notiomastodon . It is believed that this developed in the Plio-Pleistocene from Cuvieronius , which spread from North to South America. In contrast to Cuvieronius, Stegomastodon is not known from Central America.
literature
- Paul S. Martin , Richard G. Klein (Eds.): Quaternary Extinctions. A Prehistoric Revolution. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson AZ 1984, ISBN 0-8165-1100-4 .
- Arno Hermann Müller : Textbook of paleozoology. Volume 3: Vertebrates. Part 3: Mammalia. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Fischer, Jena 1989, ISBN 3-334-00223-3 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Per Christiansen: Body size in proboscideans, with notes on elephant metabolism. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 140, 2004, pp. 523-549.
- ↑ SG Lucas and GE Alvarado: Fossil proboscidea from the upper cenozoic of central america: taxonomy, evolutionary and paleobiogeographic significance. Revista Geológica de América Central 42, 2010, pp. 9-42.
