39-518: Subfamily † Chilgatheriinae Subfamily † Deinotheriinae Deinotheriidae ("terrible beasts") is a family of prehistoric elephant-like proboscideans that lived during the Cenozoic era , first appearing in Africa, then spreading across South Asia (Indo-Pakistan) and Europe. During that time, they changed very little, apart from growing much larger in size; by the late Miocene , they had become
78-466: A band of enamel covers part of the tusk surface, though in many later groups including modern elephants the band is lost, with elephants only having enamel on the tusk tips of juveniles. The upper tusks were initially modest in size, but from the Late Miocene onwards proboscideans developed increasingly large tusks, with the longest ever recorded tusk being 5.02 metres (16.5 ft) long belonging to
117-516: Is a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family ( Elephantidae ) and several extinct families. First described by J. Illiger in 1811, it encompasses the elephants and their close relatives. Three species of elephant are currently recognised: the African bush elephant , the African forest elephant , and the Asian elephant . Extinct members of Proboscidea include
156-506: Is the African bush elephant, with a world record of size of 4 m (13.1 ft) at the shoulder and 10.4 t (11.5 short tons). In addition to their enormous size, later proboscideans are distinguished by tusks and long, muscular trunks, which were less developed or absent in early proboscideans. Over 180 extinct members of Proboscidea have been described. The earliest proboscideans, Eritherium and Phosphatherium are known from
195-851: The Channel Islands and evolved into the pygmy mammoth . This species reached a height of 1.2–1.8 m (4–6 ft) and weighed 200–2,000 kg (440–4,410 lb). A population of small woolly mammoths survived on Wrangel Island as recently as 4,000 years ago. After their discovery in 1993, they were considered dwarf mammoths. This classification has been re-evaluated and since the Second International Mammoth Conference in 1999, these animals are no longer considered to be true "dwarf mammoths". It has been suggested that members of Elephantimorpha, including mammutids, gomphotheres, and stegodontids, lived in herds like modern elephants. Analysis of remains of
234-788: The Channel Islands of California , and several islands of the Mediterranean . Elephas celebensis of Sulawesi is believed to have descended from Elephas planifrons . Elephas falconeri of Malta and Sicily was only 1 m (3 ft), and had probably evolved from the straight-tusked elephant . Other descendants of the straight-tusked elephant existed in Cyprus . Dwarf elephants of uncertain descent lived in Crete , Cyclades and Dodecanese , while dwarf mammoths are known to have lived in Sardinia . The Columbian mammoth colonised
273-506: The deinotheres , mastodons , gomphotheres and stegodonts . The family Elephantidae also contains several extinct groups, including mammoths and Palaeoloxodon . Proboscideans include some of the largest known land mammals, with the elephant Palaeoloxodon namadicus and mastodon "Mammut" borsoni suggested to have body masses surpassing 16 tonnes (35,000 lb), rivalling or exceeding paraceratheres (the otherwise largest known land mammals) in size. The largest extant proboscidean
312-1365: The American gomphotheres Cuvieronius and Notiomastodon ) and Palaeoloxodon becoming extinct, with mammoths only surviving in relict populations on islands around the Bering Strait into the Holocene, with their latest survival being on Wrangel Island around 4,000 years ago. The following cladogram is based on endocasts. Phosphatherium esculliei [REDACTED] Numidotherium koholense [REDACTED] Moeritherium lyonsi [REDACTED] Deinotheriidae [REDACTED] Palaeomastodon beadnelli [REDACTED] Mammut americanum [REDACTED] Zygolophodon borsoni [REDACTED] Choerolophodon pentelici Gomphotherium augustidens [REDACTED] Cuvieronius andium [REDACTED] Stegomastodon humboldti [REDACTED] Stegodon insignis [REDACTED] Mammuthus meridionalis [REDACTED] Mammuthus primigenius [REDACTED] Mammuthus columbi [REDACTED] Elephas maximus [REDACTED] Loxodonta africana [REDACTED] Palaeoloxodon antiquus [REDACTED] Palaeoloxodon falconeri [REDACTED] Over
351-671: The American mastodon ( Mammut americanum ) suggest that like modern elephants, that herds consisted of females and juveniles and that adult males lived solitarily or in small groups, and that adult males periodically engaged in fights with other males during periods similar to musth found in living elephants. These traits are suggested to be inherited from the last common ancestor of elephantimorphs, with musth-like behaviour also suggested to have occurred in gomphotheres. All elephantimorphs are suggested to have been capable of communication via infrasound , as found in living elephants. Deinotheres may have also lived in herds, based on tracks found in
390-641: The Bering Land Bridge. Proboscidean groups prominent during the Miocene include the deinotheres , along with the more advanced elephantimorphs , including mammutids (mastodons), gomphotheres , amebelodontids (which includes the "shovel tuskers" like Platybelodon ), choerolophodontids and stegodontids . Around 10 million years ago, the earliest members of the family Elephantidae emerged in Africa, having originated from gomphotheres. The Late Miocene saw major climatic changes, which resulted in
429-553: The Late Miocene of Romania. Over the course of the Neogene and Pleistocene, various members of Elephantida shifted from a browse-dominated diet towards mixed feeding or grazing. Below is a taxonomy of proboscidean genera as of 2019. [REDACTED] Dera Bugti (district) Dera Bugti ( Balochi : ڈئره بگٹیءِ دمگ , Urdu : ضلع ڈیرہ بگٹی ) is a district within the Balochistan province of Pakistan. It
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#1732772686977468-506: The Late Miocene onwards, many groups convergently developed brevirostrine (shortened) lower jaws with vestigial or no lower tusks. Elephantids are distinguished from other proboscideans by a major shift in the molar morphology to parallel lophs rather than the cusps of earlier proboscideans, allowing them to become higher crowned (hypsodont) and more efficient in consuming grass. Several species of proboscideans lived on islands and experienced insular dwarfism . This occurred primarily during
507-590: The Pleistocene, when some elephant populations became isolated by fluctuating sea levels, although dwarf elephants did exist earlier in the Pliocene. These elephants likely grew smaller on islands due to a lack of large or viable predator populations and limited resources. By contrast, small mammals such as rodents develop gigantism in these conditions. Dwarf proboscideans are known to have lived in Indonesia ,
546-586: The bones of the skull. After the extinction of the paraceratheres at the Oligocene-Miocene transition, the deinotheres were (and remained) the largest animals walking the Earth. The late Miocene was the heyday of the giant deinotheres. D. giganteum was common from Vallesian and Turolian localities in Europe. Prodeinotherium , which was reasonably well represented in the early Miocene of Africa,
585-695: The course of the Early Pleistocene , all non-elephantid probobscideans outside of the Americas became extinct (including mammutids, gomphotheres and deinotheres), with the exception of Stegodon . Gomphotheres dispersed into South America during this era as part of the Great American interchange , and mammoths migrating into North America around 1.5 million years ago. At the end of the Early Pleistocene, around 800,000 years ago
624-480: The course of their evolution, proboscideans experienced a significant increase in body size. Some members of the families Deinotheriidae , Mammutidae , Stegodontidae and Elephantidae are thought to have exceeded modern elephants in size, with shoulder heights over 4 metres (13 ft) and masses over 10 tonnes (22,000 lb), with average fully grown males of the mammutid "Mammut" borsoni having an estimated body mass of 16 tonnes (35,000 lb), making it one
663-436: The decline and extinction of many proboscidean groups such as amebelodontids and choerolophodontids. The earliest members of modern genera of Elephantidae appeared during the latest Miocene-early Pliocene around 6-5 million years ago. The elephantid genera Elephas (which includes the living Asian elephant) and Mammuthus (mammoths) migrated out of Africa during the late Pliocene, around 3.6 to 3.2 million years ago. Over
702-468: The deinotheres remain obscure. They are thought to be related to the barytheres , due to similarities in the structure of the teeth. They clearly diverged from the rest of the proboscideans at a very early date. In the 1970s, several researchers placed them in a separate order to the Proboscidea, but this view is not followed nowadays. The oldest known deinothere is Chilgatherium harrisi from
741-465: The down-turned lower tusks being used for stripping bark or other vegetation. Deinotherium giganteum has a more elongated lower fore limb than early and middle Miocene Prodeinotherium , indicating a more efficient stride as an adaptation to the spread of savannas in Europe during the late Miocene. Deinotheres probably migrated from forest to forest, traversing the wide and (to them) useless grasslands. The ancestry and evolutionary relationships of
780-514: The earliest deinothere Chilgatherium probably weighed only around 1.5 tonnes (3,300 lb) and was less than 2 metres (6.6 ft) tall, some species of Deinotherium represent among the largest known proboscideans, with shoulder heights of over 4 metres (13 ft) and body masses around 12 tonnes (26,000 lb), considerably exceeding living African bush elephants in body size. Deinotheres were "shearing browsers" adapted for feeding on plants above ground level. The way they chewed their food
819-609: The elephantid genus Palaeoloxodon dispersed outside of Africa, becoming widely distributed in Eurasia. By the beginning of the Late Pleistocene , proboscideans were represented by around 23 species. Proboscideans underwent a dramatic decline during the Late Pleistocene as part of the Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions , with all remaining non-elephantid proboscideans (including Stegodon , mastodons , and
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#1732772686977858-402: The end of the Early Pleistocene in Africa, around 1 million years ago. The body shape and proportions of deinotheres were very much like those of modern elephants. The legs were long, like modern elephants, but the skull was rather flatter than that of true elephants. The upper jaw lacked incisor and canine teeth, but possessed five low-crowned molars on each side, with the same number in
897-449: The even more enormous Paraceratherium . While in Europe, D. giganteum continued, albeit with dwindling numbers, until the middle Pliocene; the most recent specimen is from Romania . In its original African homeland, Deinotherium continued to flourish throughout the Pliocene, and fossils have been uncovered at several of the African sites where remains of hominids have also been found. The last deinothere species to become extinct
936-422: The feet shorter and broader. The feet were originally plantigrade and developed into a digitigrade stance with cushion pads and the sesamoid bone providing support, with this change developing around the common ancestor of Deinotheriidae and Elephantiformes . Members of Elephantiformes which have retracted nasal regions of the skull indicating the development of a trunk, as well as well-developed tusks on
975-542: The genus Prodeinotherium . During the late middle Miocene, these modest-seized proboscideans were replaced by much larger forms across Eurasia. In Europe, Prodeinotherium bavaricum appeared in the early Miocene mammal faunal zone MN 4, but was soon replaced by Deinotherium giganteum in the middle Miocene. Likewise in Asia, Prodeinotherium is known from the early Miocene strata in the Bugti Hills , and continued into
1014-563: The largest and perhaps the largest land mammal ever, with a fragmentary specimen of the Indian elephant species Palaeoloxodon namadicus only known from a partial femur being speculatively estimated in the same study to have possibly reached a body mass of 22 tonnes (49,000 lb). As with other megaherbivores , including the extinct sauropod dinosaurs, the large size of proboscideans likely developed to allow them to survive on vegetation with low nutritional value. Their limbs grew longer and
1053-407: The largest land animals of their time. Their most distinctive features were their lack of upper tusks and downward-curving tusks on the lower jaw. Deinotheres were not very diverse; the only three known genera are Chilgatherium , Prodeinotherium , and Deinotherium . These form an evolutionary succession, with each new genus replacing the preceding one. The last deinotheres persisted until
1092-566: The late Oligocene . Its fossil remains have been found in the district of Chilga in Ethiopia (hence the name). This indicates that, like other proboscideans, deinotheres evolved in Africa . Chilgatherium was quite small, about midway between a large pig and a small hippopotamus in size. By the early Miocene , deinotheres had grown to the size of a small elephant and had migrated to Eurasia . Several species are known, all belonging to
1131-593: The late Paleocene of Africa. The Eocene included Numidotherium , Moeritherium and Barytherium from Africa. These animals were relatively small and some, like Moeritherium and Barytherium were probably amphibious. A major event in proboscidean evolution was the collision of Afro-Arabia with Eurasia, during the Early Miocene , around 18-19 million years ago allowing proboscideans to disperse from their African homeland across Eurasia, and later, around 16-15 million years ago into North America across
1170-452: The longest lower tusks ever recorded being from the primitive elephantid Stegotetrabelodon which are around 2.2 metres (7.2 ft) long. The molar teeth changed from being replaced vertically as in other mammals to being replaced horizontally in the clade Elephantimorpha . While early Elephantimorpha generally had lower jaws with an elongated mandibular symphysis at the front of the jaw with well developed lower tusks/incisors, from
1209-423: The lower jaw. Deinotheres used their front teeth for crushing their food, and the back teeth for shearing (slicing) the plant material. The front part of the lower jaw was turned downwards and bore the two tusk-like incisors. These curved downwards and backwards in a sort of huge hook and constituted the most distinct feature of the deinotheres. The tusks were used to strip vegetation rather than for digging. While
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1248-542: The mammutid "Mammut" borsoni found in Greece, with some mammoth tusks likely weighing over 200 kilograms (440 lb). The lower tusks are generally smaller than the upper tusks, but could grow to large sizes in some species, like in Deinotherium (which lacks upper tusks), where they could grow over 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) long, the amebelodontid Konobelodon has lower tusks 1.61 metres (5.3 ft) long, with
1287-453: The middle Miocene Chinji Formation , where it was replaced by D. indicum . While these Miocene deinotheres were dispersed widely and evolved to huge elephant sizes, they were not as common as the contemporary (but smaller) Elephantoidea . Fossil remains of this age are known from the France , Germany , Greece , Malta , and northern India and Pakistan. These consist chiefly of teeth and
1326-435: The species over time. These were the biggest animals of their day, protected from both predators and rival herbivores by virtue of their huge bulk. The largest mammoths did not approach them in size until the Pleistocene. With the end of the Miocene, deinothere fortunes declined. D. indicum died out about 7 million years ago, possibly driven to extinction by the same process of climate change that had previously eliminated
1365-605: The upper and lower jaws. The skull grew larger, especially the cranium, while the neck shortened to provide better support for the skull. The increase in size led to the development and elongation of the mobile trunk to provide reach. The number of premolars , incisors and canines decreased. The cheek teeth (molars and premolars) became larger and more specialised. In Elephantiformes, the second upper incisor and lower incisor were transformed into ever growing tusks . The tusks are proportionally heavy for their size, being primarily composed of dentine . In primitive proboscideans,
1404-619: Was D. bozasi . The youngest known specimens are from the Kanjera Formation , Kenya , about 1 million years ago (early Pleistocene). The causes of the extinction of such a successful and long-lived animal are not known, although a small number of other species of African megafauna also died out at this time. [REDACTED] Proboscidea Proboscidea ( / ˌ p r oʊ b ə ˈ s ɪ d i ə / ; from Latin proboscis , from Ancient Greek προβοσκίς ( proboskís ) 'elephant's trunk')
1443-576: Was established as a separate district in 1983. The district is administratively divided into the following five tehsils (subdivisions) (km²) (2023) (ppl/km²) (2023) (2023) At the time of the 2023 census district had a population of 355,274. Languages of Dera Bugti district (2023) At the time of the 2023 census, 98.94% of the population spoke Balochi , and 0.64% Saraiki as their first language. 28°50′N 69°00′E / 28.833°N 69.000°E / 28.833; 69.000 This Balochistan location article
1482-439: Was probably similar to that of modern tapirs , with the front teeth being used to crush the food, while the second and third molars have a strong vertical shearing action, with little lateral (side-to-side) movement. This chewing action differs from both that of gomphotheres (lateral grinding) and elephants (horizontal shearing). Deinothere molars show little wear, indicating a diet of soft, non-gritty, forest vegetation, with
1521-470: Was succeeded by D. bozasi at the beginning of the late Miocene. And in Asia, D. indicum was most common in the late-Miocene Dhok Pathan Formation . Fossil teeth of D. giganteum , from the late-Miocene Sinap Formation at the Turkish site of Kayadibi are larger than those from older localities, such as Eppelsheim , Wissberg , and Montredon , indicating a tendency for increasing size of members of
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