Platybelodon

Last updated

Platybelodon
Temporal range: Miocene, 15–10  Ma
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
Hohhot.inner mongolia museum.Platybelodon grangeri.2.jpg
Platybelodon grangeri skeleton, Inner Mongolia Museum
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Family: Amebelodontidae
Subfamily: Platybelodontinae
Genus: Platybelodon
Borissiak, 1928
Type species
Platybelodon danovi
Borissiak, 1928
Species
  • P. grangeri Osborn, 1929
  • P. beliajevaeAlexeeva, 1971
  • P. tongxinensisChen, 1978
  • P. tetralophusWang and Li, 2022

Platybelodon ("flat-spear tusk") is an extinct genus of large herbivorous proboscidean mammals related to modern-day elephants, placed in the "shovel tusker" family Amebelodontidae. Species lived during the middle Miocene Epoch in Africa, Asia and the Caucasus.

Contents

Palaeobiology

Platybelodon was previously believed to have fed in the swampy areas of grassy savannas, using its teeth to shovel up aquatic and semi-aquatic vegetation. However, wear patterns on the teeth suggest that it used its lower tusks to strip bark from trees, and may have used the sharp incisors that formed the edge of the "shovel" more like a modern-day scythe, grasping branches with its trunk and rubbing them against the lower teeth to cut it from a tree. [1] Adults in particular might have eaten coarser vegetation more frequently than juveniles. [2]

Ontogenetic growth series (from fetus to adult)
Platybelodon grangeri ontogenetic growth sequence 1 (cropped).jpg
Platybelodon grangeri ontogenetic growth sequence 2 (cropped).jpg
Platybelodon grangeri ontogenetic growth sequence 3 (cropped).jpg

Images

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Amebelodon</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Amebelodon is a genus of extinct proboscidean belonging to Amebelodontidae. The most striking attribute of this animal is its lower tusks, which are narrow, elongated, and distinctly flattened with the degree of flattening varying among the different species. One valid species is known for this genus, which was endemic to North America. Other species once assigned to Amebelodon are now assigned to the genus Konobelodon, which was once a subgenus.

<i>Dromaeosaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Dromaeosaurus is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period, sometime between 80 and 69 million years ago, in Alberta, Canada and the western United States. The type species is Dromaeosaurus albertensis, which was described by William Diller Matthew and Barnum Brown in 1922. Its fossils were unearthed in the Hell Creek Formation, Horseshoe Canyon Formation and Dinosaur Park Formation. Teeth attributed to this genus have been found in the Prince Creek Formation. Dromaeosaurus is the type genus of both Dromaeosauridae and Dromaeosaurinae, which include many genera with similar characteristics to Dromaeosaurus such as possibly its closest relative Dakotaraptor. Dromaeosaurus was heavily built, more so than other dromaeosaurs that are similar in size, like Velociraptor.

<i>Embolotherium</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Embolotherium is an extinct genus of brontothere that lived in Mongolia during the late Eocene epoch. It is most easily recognized by a large bony protuberance emanating from the anterior (front) of the skull. This resembles a battering ram, hence the name Embolotherium. The animal is known from about 12 skulls, several jaws, and a variety of other skeletal elements from the Ulan Gochu formation of Inner Mongolia as well as the Ergilin Dzo Formation of Outer Mongolia.

<i>Paraceratherium</i> Extinct genus of hornless rhinocerotoids from Eurasia

Paraceratherium is an extinct genus of hornless rhinocerotoids belonging to the family Paraceratheriidae. It is one of the largest terrestrial mammals that has ever existed and lived from the early to late Oligocene epoch. The first fossils were discovered in what is now Pakistan, and remains have been found across Eurasia between China and the Balkans. Paraceratherium means "near the hornless beast", in reference to Aceratherium, the genus in which the type species P. bugtiense was originally placed.

<i>Megaladapis</i> Extinct genus of lemurs

Megaladapis, informally known as the koala lemur, is an extinct genus of lemurs belonging to the family Megaladapidae, consisting of three species that once inhabited the island of Madagascar. The largest measured between 1.3 to 1.5 m in length.

<i>Heterodontosaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaur from the early Jurassic of South Africa

Heterodontosaurus is a genus of heterodontosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Early Jurassic, 200–190 million years ago. Its only known member species, Heterodontosaurus tucki, was named in 1962 based on a skull discovered in South Africa. The genus name means "different toothed lizard", in reference to its unusual, heterodont dentition; the specific name honours G. C. Tuck, who supported the discoverers. Further specimens have since been found, including an almost complete skeleton in 1966.

<i>Hovasaurus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Hovasaurus is an extinct genus of basal diapsid reptile. It lived in what is now Madagascar during the Late Permian and Early Triassic, being a survivor of the Permian–Triassic extinction event and the paleontologically youngest member of the Tangasauridae. Fossils have been found in the Permian Lower and Triassic Middle Sakamena Formations of the Sakamena Group, where it is amongst the commonest fossils. Its morphology suggests an aquatic ecology.

<i>Palorchestes</i> Extinct genus of marsupial

Palorchestes is an extinct genus of large terrestrial, herbivorous Australian marsupial of the family Palorchestidae, living from the Miocene through to the Late Pleistocene. Like other palorchestids, it had highly retracted nasal region suggesting that it had a prehensile lip, as well as highly unusual clawed forelimbs that were used to grasp vegetation.

<i>Icaronycteris</i> Extinct genus of bats

Icaronycteris is an extinct genus of microchiropteran (echolocating) bat that lived in the early Eocene, approximately 52.2 million years ago, making it the earliest bat genus known from complete skeletons, and the earliest known bat from North America. Multiple exceptionally preserved specimens, among the best preserved bat fossils, are known from the Green River Formation of North America. The best known species is I. index. Fragmentary material from France has also been tentatively placed within Icaronycteris as the second species I. menui. I. sigei is based on well-preserved fragments of dentaries and lower teeth found in Western India. In 2023, the species I. gunnelli also from the Green River Formation was distinguished from I. index, and I. menui and I. sigei were proposed to be removed from the genus due to them not being closely related.

<i>Prorastomus</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Prorastomus sirenoides is an extinct species of primitive sirenian that lived during the Eocene Epoch 40 million years ago in Jamaica.

<i>Phiomia</i> Genus of mammals

Phiomia is an extinct genus of basal elephantiform proboscidean that lived in what is now Northern Africa during the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene some 37–30 million years ago. "Phiomia serridens" means "saw-toothed animal of Faiyum".

<i>Metridiochoerus</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Metridiochoerus is an extinct genus of swine known from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Africa. It is also known as the giant warthog.

<i>Sivatherium</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Sivatherium is an extinct genus of giraffid that ranged throughout Africa and Eurasia. The species Sivatherium giganteum is, by weight, one of the largest giraffids known, and also one of the largest ruminants of all time.

<i>Phosphatherium</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Phosphatherium escuillei is a basal proboscidean that lived from the Late Paleocene to the early stages of the Ypresian age. Research has suggested that Phosphatherium existed during the Eocene period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ptolemaiida</span> Extinct order of mammals

Ptolemaiida is a taxon of wolf-sized afrothere mammals that lived in northern and eastern Africa during the Paleogene. The oldest fossils are from the latest Eocene strata of the Jebel Qatrani Formation, near the Fayum oasis in Egypt. A tooth is known from an Oligocene-aged stratum in Angola, and Miocene specimens are known from Kenya and Uganda.

<i>Diplodocus</i> Genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs (fossil)

Diplodocus is an extinct genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs known from the Late Jurassic of North America. The first fossils of Diplodocus were discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a Neo-Latin term derived from Greek διπλός (diplos) "double" and δοκός (dokos) "beam", in reference to the double-beamed chevron bones located in the underside of the tail, which were then considered unique.

<i>Aphelops</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Aphelops is an extinct genus of hornless rhinocerotids endemic to North America. It lived from the Middle Miocene to the early Pliocene, during which it was a common component of North American mammalian faunas along with Teleoceras.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mammal tooth</span> Details of teeth found in many warm-blooded vertebrate animals

Teeth are common to most vertebrates, but mammalian teeth are distinctive in having a variety of shapes and functions. This feature first arose among early therapsids during the Permian, and has continued to the present day. All therapsid groups with the exception of the mammals are now extinct, but each of these groups possessed different tooth patterns, which aids with the classification of fossils.

<i>Konobelodon</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Konobelodon is an extinct genus of amebelodont proboscidean from the Miocene of Africa, Eurasia and North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amebelodontidae</span> Extinct family of mammals

Amebelodontidae is an extinct family of large herbivorous proboscidean mammals related to elephants. They were formerly assigned to Gomphotheriidae, but recent authors consider them a distinct family. They are distinguished from other proboscideans by having flattened lower tusks and very elongate mandibular symphysis. The lower tusks could grow to considerable size, with those of Konobelodon reaching 1.61 metres (5.3 ft) in length. Their molar teeth are typically trilophodont, and possessed posttrite conules. In the past, amebelodonts' shovel-like mandibular tusks led to them being portrayed scooping up water plants, however, dental microwear suggests that they were browsers and mixed feeders. The lower tusks have been proposed to have had a variety of functions depending on the species, including stripping bark, cutting through vegetation, as well as possibly digging. They first appeared in Africa during the Early Miocene, and subsequently dispersed into Eurasia and then North America. They became extinct by the beginning of the Pliocene. While some phylogenetic studies have recovered Amebelodontidae as a monophyletic group that forms the sister group to Gomphotheriidae proper, some authors have argued that Amebelodontidae may be polyphyletic, with it being suggested that the shovel-tusked condition arose several times independently within Gomphotheriidae, thus rendering the family invalid.

References

  1. Lambert, W.D (1992). "The feeding habits of the shovel-tusked gomphotheres: evidence from tusk wear patterns". Paleobiology. 18 (2): 132–147. Bibcode:1992Pbio...18..132L. doi:10.1017/S0094837300013932. JSTOR   2400995. S2CID   87230816.
  2. Semprebon, Gina; Tao, Deng; Hasjanova, Jelena; Solounias, Nikos (2016). "An examination of the dietary habits of Platybelodon grangeri from the Linxia Basin of China: Evidence from dental microwear of molar teeth and tusks". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 457: 109–116. Bibcode:2016PPP...457..109S. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.06.012 .

Further reading