Amebelodontidae

Amebelodontidae is an extinct family of large herbivorous mammals that were closely related to elephants. They were formerly assigned to Gomphotheriidae, but recent authors consider them a distinct family.[1][2]

Amebelodont
Temporal range: 16–2.5 Ma Miocene - Pliocene
Platybelodon skeleton in a Hubei, China, museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Clade: Elephantida
Family: †Amebelodontidae
Barbour, 1927
Genera

Feeding habits

In the past, Amebelodonts' shovel-like mandibular tusks led to them being portrayed scooping up water plants. However, the wear pattern on the mandibular tusks of Platybelodon grangeri and P. barnumbrowni indicate that these taxa used their tusks to cut through vegetation in a specialized way.[3]

  • Archaeobelodon filholi mandible
  • Skull of Platybelodon grangeri

References
  1. Wang, Shi-Qi; Deng, Tao; Ye, Jie; He, Wen; Chen, Shan-Qin (5 January 2016). "Morphological and ecological diversity of Amebelodontidae (Proboscidea, Mammalia) revealed by a Miocene fossil accumulation of an upper-tuskless proboscidean". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology (Online ed.). 15 (8): 601–615. doi:10.1080/14772019.2016.1208687. S2CID 89063787.
  2. Mothé, D; Ferretti, MP; Avilla, LS (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. 11 (1): e0147009. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1147009M. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147009. PMC 4710528. PMID 26756209.
  3. Lambert, David (1992) "The feeding habits of the shovel-tusked gomphotheres: Evidence from tusk wear patterns" Paleobiology 18.2 https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2400995.pdf Retrieved October 2012


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