Plesielephantiformes

Plesielephantiformes Temporal range: 56–2  Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N Early Eocene to Early Pleistocene
Partial skeleton of a Deinotherium gigantissimum in the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History in Chisinau.
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Proboscidea
Suborder:	† Plesielephantiformes Shoshani et al., 2001
Families
†Numidotheriidae †Barytheriidae †Deinotheriidae

Plesielephantiformes is a proposed suborder of the Proboscidea, the group containing elephants and their close relatives. It was named and circumscribed in a 2001 study by Jeheskel Shoshani and colleagues to include Deinotheriidae, as well as Numidotheriidae and Barytheriidae. ^[1] While originally proposed to represent a monophyletic clade, based on the supposed unifying character of having bilophodont teeth, ^[1] most modern phylogenetic studies of Proboscidea find the group to be paraphyletic, with Deinotheriidae more closely related to Elephantiformes than to other supposed members of the group. ^[2]

Cladogram after Hautier et al. 2021: ^[2]

Proboscidea	Eritherium Phosphatherium Daouitherium Numidotherium Barytherium Arcanotherium Omanitherium Saloumia Moeritherium Deinotheriidae Elephantiformes Dagbatitherium Palaeomastodon Phiomia Elephantimorpha

References

1. J. Shoshani; W. J. Sanders; P. Tassy (2001). "Elephants and other Proboscideans: a summary of recent findings and new taxonomic suggestions" (PDF). The World of Elephants - International Congress, Rome 2001: 676–679. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-11-12.
2. Hautier, Lionel; Tabuce, Rodolphe; Mourlam, Mickaël J.; Kassegne, Koffi Evenyon; Amoudji, Yawovi Zikpi; Orliac, Maëva; Quillévéré, Frédéric; Charruault, Anne-Lise; Johnson, Ampah Kodjo Christophe; Guinot, Guillaume (2021-10-13). "New Middle Eocene proboscidean from Togo illuminates the early evolution of the elephantiform-like dental pattern". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 288 (1960). doi:10.1098/rspb.2021.1439. ISSN   0962-8452. PMC   8511763 . PMID   34641726.