Elephantida

Life-size reconstructions of Stegodon, copyright Vjdchauhan.

Belongs within: Proboscidea.
Contains: Elephantidae.

The proboscidean clade Elephantida unites the paraphyletic 'gomphotheres' with the living Elephantidae: essentially, all proboscideans closer to modern elephants than the mastodons (Mammutidae). As recognised here, the Elephantida are first recorded in the Miocene of Africa, subsequently spreading to Eurasia and the Americas. Subgroups include the Amebelodontidae of the Miocene and Pliocene which had a distinctive elongate lower jaw ending in shovel-shaped tusks.

Synapomorphies (from Tassy & Shoshani 1988): Lacrimal foramen generally not opened in the orbit at maturity; palatine with reduced spina nasalis posterior; external nasal opening enlarged laterally; enlarged tritolophid on M_1-2; cement on crowns of teeth; deep bicipital groove on humerus and higher trochanter; carpus and metacarpus less cursorial; lunar with enlarged articular surface for ulna.

<==Elephantida [Amebelodontinae, Gomphotheriidae, Gomphotheriinae, Gomphotherioidea]
    |--Choerolophodon Schlessinger 1917 TS88, CM78
    |    `--C. palaeindicus SKR04
    |--Amebelodontidae TS88
    |    |--Archaeobelodon TS88
    |    |--Serbelodon TS88
    |    |--Gnathabelodon TS88
    |    |--Amebelodon Barbour 1927 D07
    |    |    |--A. britti D07
    |    |    `--A. floridanus D07
    |    `--Platybelodon Borissiak 1928 TS88, CM78
    |         |--*P. danovi CM78
    |         |--P. filholi CM78
    |         `--P. grangeri CM78
    `--+--+--Stegomastodon TS88
       |  |    |--S. platensis FS15
       |  |    `--S. waringi FS15
       |  `--Cuvieronius Osborn 1923 FS15, D07 [Cuvieroninae]
       |       |--C. hyodon D07
       |       `--C. tropicus D07
       `--+--Elephantoidea SW06
          |    |--Elephantidae SW06
          |    `--Stegodontidae SW06
          |         |--Stegolophodon Petrocchi 1943 TS88, CM78
          |         `--Stegodon TS88
          |              |  i. s.: S. ganesa KS91
          |              |         S. insignis KS91
          |              |         S. kaisensis CM78
          |              |--S. florensis FS15
          |              `--+--S. orientalis FS15
          |                 `--S. trigonocephalus FS15
          `--+--Tetralophodon Falconer & Cautley 1857 TS88, CM78
             |    |--T. exoletus DW04
             |    |--T. longirostris CM78
             |    `--‘Mastodon’ mirificus C77
             `--Anancus Aymard 1855 [incl. Pentalophodon Falconer & MacInnes 1942; Anancinae] CM78
                  |--*A. arvernensis [=Mastodon arvernensis] CM78
                  |--A. jebtebsus D07
                  |--A. kenyensis (MacInnes 1942) [=Pentalophodon sivalensis kenyensis] CM78
                  |--A. osiris Arambourg 1945 CM78
                  `--A. petrocchii Coppens 1965 [=A. (Pentalophodon) petrocchii] CM78

Elephantida incertae sedis:
  Afrochoerodon kisumuensis SKR04
  Paratetralophodon TS88
  Rhynchotherium TS88
  Eubelodon TS88
  Haplomastodon TS88
  Notiomastodon TS88
  Gomphotherium Burmeister 1837 TS88, CM78 (see below for synonymy)
    |--*G. angustidens (Cuvier 1806) (see below for synonymy) CM78
    |    |--G. a. angustidens CM78
    |    `--G. a. pontileviensis CM78
    |--G. ngorora Maglio 1974 CM78
    |--‘Moeritherium’ pandionis Pilgrim 1912 [=Trilophodon pandionis] CB78
    |--G. productum CM78
    `--G. pygmaeus (Depéret 1897) (see below for synonymy) CM78

Gomphotherium Burmeister 1837 TS88, CM78 [incl. Bunolophodon Vacek 1877 CM78, Serridentinus Osborn 1923 CM78, Trilophodon Falconer & Cautley 1857 CM78]

*Gomphotherium angustidens (Cuvier 1806) [=Mastodon angustidens; incl. Trilophodon angustidens kisumuensis MacInnes 1942, M. angustidens var. libyca Fourtau 1918, Gomphotherium angustidens libycus, Protanancus macinnesi Arambourg 1945, Mastodon spenceri Fourtau 1918] CM78

Gomphotherium pygmaeus (Depéret 1897) [=Mastodon angustidens pygmaeus, Phiomia pygmaeus, Trilophodon olisponensis pygmaeus] CM78

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[C77] Cope, E. D. 1877. Report upon the extinct Vertebrata obtained in New Mexico by parties of the expedition of 1874. Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian 4 (2): i–iv, 1–370.

[CB78] Coppens, Y., & M. Beden 1978. Moeritherioidea. In: Maglio, V. J., & H. B. S. Cooke (eds) Evolution of African Mammals pp. 333–335. Harvard University Press: Cambridge (Massachusetts).

[CM78] Coppens, Y., V. J. Maglio, C. T. Madden & M. Beden. 1978. Proboscidea. In: Maglio, V. J., & H. B. S. Cooke (eds) Evolution of African Mammals pp. 336–367. Harvard University Press: Cambridge (Massachusetts).

[DW04] Deng T., Wang X., Ni X. & Liu L. 2004. Sequence of the Cenozoic mammalian faunas of the Linxia Basin in Gansu, China. Acta Geologica Sinica (English Edition) 78 (1): 8–14.

[D07] Dixon, D. 2007. The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures. Hermes House: London.

[FS15] Faurby, S., & J.-C. Svenning. 2015. A species-level phylogeny of all extant and late Quaternary extinct mammals using a novel heuristic-hierarchical Bayesian approach. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 84: 14–26.

[KS91] Kennedy, K. A. R., A. Sonakia, J. Chiment & K. K. Verma. 1991. Is the Narmada hominid an Indian Homo erectus? American Journal of Physical Anthropology 86: 475–496.

[SKR04] Sanders, W. J., J. Kappelman & D. T. Rasmussen. 2004. New large-bodied mammals from the late Oligocene site of Chilga, Ethiopia. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 49 (3): 365–392.

[SW06] Shoshani, J., R. C. Walter, M. Abraha, S. Berhe, P. Tassy, W. J. Sanders, G. H. Marchant, Y. Libsekal, T. Ghirmai & D. Zinner. 2006. A proboscidean from the late Oligocene of Eritrea, a “missing link” between early Elephantiformes and Elephantimorpha, and biogeographical implications. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 103 (46): 17296–17301.

[TS88] Tassy, P., & J. Shoshani. 1988. The Tethytheria: elephants and their relatives. In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Phylogeny and Classification of the Tetrapods vol. 2. Mammals pp. 283–315. Clarendon Press: Oxford.

Last updated: 15 August 2018.