Stegodontidae

Stegodontidae is an extinct family of proboscideans from Africa and Asia (with a single occurrence in Europe) from the Miocene (15.97 mya)[1] to the Late Pleistocene, with some studies suggesting that some survived into the Holocene in China (until as recently as 4.1 thousand years ago),[2] although this is disputed.[3] It contains two genera, the earlier Stegolophodon, known from the Early Miocene of Asia and the later Stegodon, from the Late Miocene to Late Pleistocene of Africa and Asia (with a single occurrence in Greece) which derived from the former. The group is noted for their plate-like lophs on their teeth, which are similar to elephants and different from those than of other extinct proboscideans like gomphotheres and mastodons. This similarity with modern elephants may have been convergently evolved, however.[4]

Not to be confused with the extinct metatherian family Stagodontidae.

Stegodontidae
Temporal range:
Stegolophodon cautleyi
Stegodon hunghoensis
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Superfamily: Elephantoidea
Family: †Stegodontidae
Osborn, 1918
Genera

Taxonomy

Stegodontidae was named by Osborn (1918). It was assigned to Mammutoidea by Carroll (1988); to Elephantoidea by Lambert and Shoshani (1998); and to Elephantoidea by Shoshani et al. (2006).[5][6] It contains two extinct elephant-like genera:

Proboscidea
Stegodontidae

Stegolophodon

Stegodon

Like all proboscideans, the clade's position is uncertain: Some authors place it as a daughter clade under the Elephantidae, while others make the Stegodontidae a sister-clade to the Elephantidae.

References
  1. "Stegodontidae basic info". Paleobiology database.
  2. Saegusa, H. (2001). Comparisons of Stegodon and Elephantid Abundances in the Late Pleistocene of Southern China (PDF). The World of Elephants – Second International Congress. Rome. pp. 345–349. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 May 2006.
  3. Turvey, Samuel T.; Tong, Haowen; Stuart, Anthony J.; Lister, Adrian M. (2013). "Holocene survival of Late Pleistocene megafauna in China: A critical review of the evidence". Quaternary Science Reviews. 76: 156–166. Bibcode:2013QSRv...76..156T. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.06.030.
  4. Saegusa, Haruo (March 2020). "Stegodontidae and Anancus: Keys to understanding dental evolution in Elephantidae". Quaternary Science Reviews. 231: 106176. Bibcode:2020QSRv..23106176S. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106176. S2CID 214094348.
  5. R. L. Carroll. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York 1-698
  6. J. Shoshani, R. C. Walter, M. Abraha, S. Berhe, P. Tassy, W. J. Sanders, G. H. Marchant, Y. Libsekal, T. Ghirmai and D. Zinner. 2006. A proboscidean from the late Oligocene of Eritrea, a "missing link" between early Elephantiformes and Elephantimorpha, and biogeographic implications. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(46)


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