Gnathabelodon

Gnathabelodon is an extinct genus of gomphothere (a sister group to modern elephants) endemic to North America that includes species that lived during the Middle to Late Miocene.

Gnathabelodon
Temporal range: Middle Miocene–Late Miocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Proboscidea
Family:
†Gomphotheriidae
Subfamily:
†Gnathabelodontinae
Genus:
†Gnathabelodon
Type species
Gnathabelodon thorpei
Barbour and Sternberg, 1935[1]
Species
  • G. thorpei Barbour and Sternberg, 1935 (type)

"Gnathabelodon" buckneri Sellards, 1940 has been renamed Blancotherium.[2]

Description

It was called "spoon-billed mastodons" since their lower jaw was elongated and shaped like a shoe-horn or spoon. The flaring of the tip of their lower jaw was similar to that of the "shovel-tuskers" (Platybelodon and Amebelodon); however, Gnathabelodon species are distinct in having no lower tusks whilst the "shovel tuskers" have broad, flattened lower tusks. The upper tusks are large and curve outwards and upwards. With respect to dentition and overall body form, it was similar to species of Gomphotherium, but Mothe et al. (2016) recover Gnathabelodon as closer to brevirostrine gomphotheriids than to Gomphotherium.[3]

References
  1. Barbour, E.H. and Sternberg, G. (1935). Gnathabelodon thorpei, gen. et sp. nov. A new mud-grubbing mastodon. Bulletin of the Nebraska State Museum, 42: 395-404.
  2. Steven R. May (2019). The Lapara Creek Fauna: Early Clarendonian of south Texas, USA. Palaeontologia Electronica 22 (1): Article number 22.1.15. doi:10.26879/929.
  3. Mothé, Dimila; Ferretti, Marco P.; Avilla, Leonardo S. (12 January 2016). "The Dance of Tusks: Rediscovery of Lower Incisors in the Pan-American Proboscidean Cuvieronius hyodon Revises Incisor Evolution in Elephantimorpha". PLOS ONE. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147009. Retrieved 4 May 2017.

Sources
  • A Pictorial Guide to Fossils by Gerard Ramon Case
  • Classification of Mammals by Malcolm C. McKenna and Susan K. Bell


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