Tetralophodon

Tetralophodon ("four-ridged tooth") is an extinct genus of "tetralophodont gomphothere" belonging to the superfamily Elephantoidea, known from the Miocene to Pliocene of Afro-Eurasia.[2][3][4]

Tetralophodon
Temporal range:
Mounted skeleton, Henan Geological Museum
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Superfamily: Elephantoidea
Genus: †Tetralophodon
Falconer & Cautley, 1847
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]

Taxonomy

The genus Tetralophodon (meaning "four-ridged tooth") was named in the mid-19th century with the discovery of the specialized teeth.

Tetralophodon is suggested by some authors to have descended from Gomphotherium. "Tetralophodont gomphotheres" like Tetralophodon are thought to be more closely related to elephantids and stegodontids than to trilophodont gomphotheres.[5] African species of Tetralophodon have been suggested to be the ancestor of elephantids.[6]

Description
Restoration

Tetralophodon was an elephant-like animal which existed through the late Miocene to the Middle Pliocene epochs,[7]

They are believed to have been about 2.58–3.45 m (8.5–11.3 ft) tall at the shoulder and up to 10 tonnes in weight,[8] larger than the size of the present Asian elephant, with a long trunk and incisors ranging up to 2 m (6.6 ft) long. These incisors are believed to have been used as a defense mechanism.

The large, four-cusped cheek teeth of these animals are about 60 mm (2.4 in) by 80 mm (3.1 in), about six times the size of a normal human tooth. These low-crowned, bunodont teeth were adapted for crushing and grinding, compared with other mammals during this era that had sharp teeth used for cutting. The teeth indicate a diet of large fruits and vegetables. This diet was aided by the large size and long trunks that enabled these mammals to reach tall, fruit-bearing trees.

Some features, mainly concerning the teeth, would seem to place Tetralophodon close to the origin of today's elephants. The molars, in particular, are more advanced and specialized than those of the other gomphotheres.

Distribution
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 late Miocene to the Middle Pliocene epochs of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Most fossil records of Tetralophodon are of four-ridged teeth. The North American species, T. campester and T. fricki, have been moved to the genus Pediolophodon in 2007.[9]

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. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. "ON THE SUBDIVISIONS AND EVOLUTION OF THE QUATERNARY MAMMALIAN FAUNAS OF SOUTH CHINA--《Certebrata Palasiatica》1981年01期". en.cnki.com.cn. Retrieved 2016-06-12.
  8. Larramendi, A. (2016). "Shoulder height, body mass and shape of proboscideans" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 61. doi:10.4202/app.00136.2014.
  9. 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.
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