Tetralophodon

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Tetralophodon
Temporal range: Middle Miocene–Late Miocene
Tetralophodon.jpg
Mounted skeleton, Henan Geological Museum
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Superfamily: Elephantoidea
Genus:† Tetralophodon
Falconer, 1857
Species
  • †T. longirostris(Kaup, 1832) (type)
  • †T. curvirostris(Bergounioux and Crouzel, 1960)
  • †T. gigantorostris(Klähn, 1931)
  • †T. punjabiensis(Lydekker, 1886)
  • †T. xiaolongtanensis(Chow and Chang, 1974)
  • †T. euryrostris(Wang, Saegusa, Duangkrayom, He, and Chen, 2017) [1]

Tetralophodon ("four-ridged tooth") is an extinct genus of "tetralophodont gomphothere" belonging to the superfamily Elephantoidea, known from the Miocene of Afro-Eurasia. [2] [3] [4] It has been posited to be the ultimate ancestor of Elephantidae.

Contents

Taxonomy and evolution

The type species of Tetralophodon, T. longirostris, was originally named as Mastodon longirostris by Johann Jakob Kaup in 1832, based on remains including a partial mandible (lower jaw) with teeth collected from the vicinity of Eppelsheim in Germany. [5] [6] [7] The genus Tetralophodon was later named in 1857 by Hugh Falconer. [8]

Tetralophodon is suggested to have descended from the "trilophodont gomphothere" Gomphotherium. "Tetralophodont gomphotheres" like Tetralophodon are thought to be ancestral to elephantids and stegodontids, [9] with African species of Tetralophodon suggested to be the ancestor of elephantids, [10] with Tetralophodon likely the direct ancestor of the most primitive known elephantid, Stegotetrabelodon . [11] Tetralophodon is also suggested to be the ancestor of the fellow "tetralophodont gomphothere" Anancus . [12]

Description

Restoration Tetralophodon from Cerro de Batallones.png
Restoration

A large individual of the European species T. longirostris is suggested to have been 3.45 metres (11.3 ft) tall at the shoulder and up to 10 tonnes in weight. [13] The first and second molar teeth are tetralophodont (bearing four pairs of cusps). [14] The mandibular symphysis (the fused frontmost part of the lower jaw) is typically elongate and bears lower tusks. The lower tusks vary greatly in size and morphology between species, with some species having flattened tusks with an oval-shaped cross section, while others have tusks which are pyriform (pear-shaped) in cross section. [15] [16] The upper tusks are proportionally large, [14] and lack enamel bands. [16]

Distribution

Fossil skull and tusks of T. longirostris, from Ballestar, Spain at the Museu Geologic del Seminari de Barcelona, Barcelona Fossils - Museu Geologic del Seminari de Barcelona 43.JPG
Fossil skull and tusks of T. longirostris, from Ballestar, Spain at the Museu Geològic del Seminari de Barcelona, Barcelona

These animals were very widespread and successful proboscideans. Their fossils have been found from the Middle Miocene to the Late Miocene epochs of Europe, Asia, and Africa. [14] The likely oldest species in the genus, the European T. longirostris first appeared around 13–12.5 million years ago. T. longirostris may have survived in Europe as late as 7 million years ago. [11] The North American species, T. campester and T. fricki, were moved to the genus Pediolophodon in 2007, which is suggested to be unrelated to Tetralophodon, but instead representing parallel evolution. [17]

Ecology

Specimens of Tetralophodon from the late Miocene of East Africa have been suggested to be browsers and mixed feeders based on mesowear analysis. Analysis of tooth wear suggest that these individuals had developed proal movement (back to front motion) in the lower jaws, akin to that used by modern elephants, but different from that used by earlier gomphotheres. [18] A similar mixed feeding diet with a strong browsing compotent was inferred for T. longirostris individuals from the Hammerschmiede clay pit in Germany, dating to the early-middle Miocene boundary around 11.4-11.6 million years ago. [5]

References

  1. ↑ Shi-Qi Wang; Haruo Saegusa; Jaroon Duangkrayom; Wen He; Shan-Qin Chen (2017). "A new species of Tetralophodon from the Linxia Basin and the biostratigraphic significance of tetralophodont gomphotheres from the Upper Miocene of northern China". Palaeoworld. in press. doi:10.1016/j.palwor.2017.03.005
  2. ↑ J. Shoshani and P. Tassy. 2005. Advances in proboscidean taxonomy & classification, anatomy & physiology, and ecology & behavior. Quaternary International 126-128:5-20
  3. ↑ J. Shoshani and P. Tassy. 1996. Summary, conclusions, and a glimpse into the future. in J. Shoshani and P. Tassy, eds., The Proboscidea: Evolution and Palaeoecology of Elephants and Their Relatives 335-348
  4. ↑ Mothé D, Ferretti MP, Avilla LS (2016) "The Dance of Tusks: Rediscovery of Lower Incisors in the Pan-American Proboscidean Cuvieronius hyodon Revises Incisor Evolution in Elephantimorpha". PLoS ONE 11(1): e0147009. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147009
  5. 1 2 Konidaris, George E.; Lechner, Thomas; Kampouridis, Panagiotis; Böhme, Madelaine (December 2023). "Deinotherium levius and Tetralophodon longirostris (Proboscidea, Mammalia) from the Late Miocene hominid locality Hammerschmiede (Bavaria, Germany), and their biostratigraphic significance for the terrestrial faunas of the European Miocene". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 30 (4): 923–961. doi: 10.1007/s10914-023-09683-3 . ISSN   1064-7554.
  6. ↑ Kaup JJ (1832a) Description d’Ossements Fossiles de Mammifères Inconnus Jusqu’à Présent, qui se Trouvent au Muséum Grand-ducal de Darmstadt. J.G. Heyer, Darmstadt.
  7. ↑ Kaup J (1832b) Ueber zwei Fragmente eines Unterkiefers von Mastodon angustidens Cuv., nach welchen diese Art in die Gattung Tetracaulodon Godmann gehört. Isis 25:628–631.
  8. ↑ Falconer, H. (February 1857). "On the Species of Mastodon and Elephant occurring in the fossil state in Great Britain. Part I. Mastodon". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London. 13 (1–2): 307–360. Bibcode:1857QJGS...13..307F. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1857.013.01-02.43. ISSN   0370-291X.
  9. ↑ Wu, Yan; Deng, Tao; Hu, Yaowu; Ma, Jiao; Zhou, Xinying; Mao, Limi; Zhang, Hanwen; Ye, Jie; Wang, Shi-Qi (2018-05-16). "A grazing Gomphotherium in Middle Miocene Central Asia, 10 million years prior to the origin of the Elephantidae". Scientific Reports. 8 (1): 7640. Bibcode:2018NatSR...8.7640W. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-25909-4. ISSN   2045-2322. PMC   5956065 . PMID   29769581.
  10. ↑ Geraads, Denis; Zouhri, Samir; Markov, Georgi N. (2019-05-04). "The first Tetralophodon (Mammalia, Proboscidea) cranium from Africa". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 39 (3): e1632321. Bibcode:2019JVPal..39E2321G. doi:10.1080/02724634.2019.1632321. ISSN   0272-4634. S2CID   202024016.
  11. 1 2 Sanders, William J. (2023-07-07). Evolution and Fossil Record of African Proboscidea (1 ed.). Boca Raton: CRC Press. p. 163. doi:10.1201/b20016. ISBN   978-1-315-11891-8.
  12. ↑ Romano, Marco; Bellucci, Luca; Antonelli, Matteo; Manucci, Fabio; Palombo, Maria Rita (2023-06-13). "Body mass estimate of Anancus arvernensis (Croizet and Jobert 1828): comparison of the regression and volumetric methods" . Journal of Quaternary Science. 38 (8): 1357–1381. Bibcode:2023JQS....38.1357R. doi:10.1002/jqs.3549. ISSN   0267-8179. S2CID   259438457.
  13. ↑ Larramendi, A. (2016). "Shoulder height, body mass and shape of proboscideans" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 61. doi: 10.4202/app.00136.2014 .
  14. 1 2 3 van der Made, J. The Evolution of the Elephants and Their Relatives in the Context of Changing Climate and Geography. In Elefantentreich—Eine Fossilwelt in Europa; Verlag Beier & Beran: Langenweißbach, Germany, 2010; pp. 340–360. ISBN 978-3-939414-48-3.
  15. ↑ Wang, Shi-Qi; Saegusa, Haruo; Duangkrayom, Jaroon; He, Wen; Chen, Shan-Qin (December 2017). "A new species of Tetralophodon from the Linxia Basin and the biostratigraphic significance of tetralophodont gomphotheres from the Upper Miocene of northern China" . Palaeoworld. 26 (4): 703–717. doi:10.1016/j.palwor.2017.03.005.
  16. 1 2 Konidaris, George E.; Tsoukala, Evangelia (2022), Vlachos, Evangelos (ed.), "The Fossil Record of the Neogene Proboscidea (Mammalia) in Greece" , Fossil Vertebrates of Greece Vol. 1, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 299–344, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-68398-6_12, ISBN   978-3-030-68397-9, S2CID   245023119 , retrieved 2023-08-29
  17. ↑ Lambert, W. D. (2007). "New tetralophodont gomphothere material from Nebraska and its implications for the status of North American Tetralophodon". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 27 (3): 676–682. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[676:NTGMFN]2.0.CO;2. S2CID   86332751.
  18. ↑ Saarinen, Juha; Lister, Adrian M. (2023-08-14). "Fluctuating climate and dietary innovation drove ratcheted evolution of proboscidean dental traits". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 7 (9): 1490–1502. Bibcode:2023NatEE...7.1490S. doi: 10.1038/s41559-023-02151-4 . ISSN   2397-334X. PMC   10482678 . PMID   37580434.
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