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12-430: † Eozygodon Tassy and Pickford, 1983 † Losodokodon Rasmussen & Gutiérrez, 2009 † Mammut Blumenbach, 1799 † Miomastodon ? Osborn, 1922 † Sinomammut Mothé et al. , 2016 † Zygolophodon Vacek, 1877 Mammutidae is an extinct family of proboscideans belonging to Elephantimorpha . It is best known for the mastodons (genus Mammut ), which inhabited North America from

24-531: A browsing diet. δ C enamel values in E. morotoensis from Moroto were very high. [REDACTED] This article about a prehistoric proboscidean is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Gomphotherium land bridge Passage of fauna between Eurasia and the Arabian Plate and thus Africa was largely hindered before the Early Miocene , as animals could not cross

36-738: Is considered a primitive member of the family, retaining a long lower jaw (longirostrine) with lower tusks. The upper tusks are small, and are parallel to each other. The skull of the young adult (around 24-26 years old in African elephant tooth wear equivalent years) AM 02 from Auchas, Namibia, was around the size of that of a 10 year old American mastodon , around 60 centimetres (2.0 ft) in maximum length. Some authors suggest that Eozygodon could be less closely related to other members of Mammutidae than other mammutids are to Elephantida , making Mammutidae as typically defined paraphyletic . Dental mesowear from East African specimens suggests

48-430: Is uncertain. Compared to modern elephants, the bones of most mammutids were more robust, with the limb bones in particular being massive. Early members of the group like Eozygodon and Zygolophodon had elongate mandibular symphysis of the lower jaws with lower incisors/tusks, while in later representatives like Sinomammut and Mammut , the lower incisors/tusks were either lost or only vestigially present, and

60-1074: The Late Miocene until their extinction at beginning of the Holocene , around 11,000 years ago. The earliest fossils of the group are known from the Late Oligocene of Africa, around 24 million years ago, and fossils of the group have also been found across Eurasia. The name "mastodon" derives from Greek , μαστός "nipple" and ὀδούς "tooth", referring to their characteristic teeth. Mammutids are characterised by their zygodont molars, where pairs of parallel cusps are merged into sharp-sided riges, which are morphologically conservative and differ little between mammutid species. Like other members of Elephantimorpha , mammutids exhibited horizontal tooth replacement like modern elephants. Some authors have argued that horizontal tooth replacement evolved in parallel in mammutids and members of Elephantida (which includes gomphotheres and elephants), though this

72-550: The Late Oligocene , with the oldest genus Losodokodon dating to around 27.5-24 million years ago. Mammutids belonging to the genus Zygolophodon (as well as possibly other mammutid genera) entered Eurasia across the " Gomphotherium land bridge " during the early Miocene, around 18 million years ago. Mammutid remains are generally rare in Eurasia in comparison to contemporary gomphotheres and deinotheres . During

84-541: The end of the Pleistocene, approximately 11,000 years ago. [REDACTED] Eozygodon Eozygodon is an extinct genus of proboscidean in the family Mammutidae . It is a monotypic genus that contains the single species E. morotoensis , named in 1983. It is known from the Early Miocene of Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Namibia) and well as possibly the Middle Miocene of China . It

96-736: The late early Miocene, around 16.5 million years ago, a population of Zygolophodon entered North America, giving rise to Mammut. The youngest confirmed records of mammutids in Africa date to around 13 million years ago, though possible Late Miocene fossils have been reported from North Africa. At the beginning of the Pleistocene , around 2 to 2.5 million years ago, the last of the Eurasian mammutids, "Mammut" borsoni became extinct, with members of Mammut persisting in North America until

108-559: The longest known of any animal, reaching over 5 metres (16 ft) in length. Members of Mammutidae are thought to have been primarily browsers on the foliage and twigs of trees and shrubs. Analysis of American mastodon ( Mammut americanum ) remains suggests that mammutids had a similar social structure to modern elephants, with herds of adult females and juveniles, with adult males living solitarily or in bonding groups with other males, with adult males periodically engaging in musth -like fighting behaviour against other males. Mammutids are

120-423: The lower jaws shortened (brevirostrine). This process happened convergently amongst other elephantimorph proboscideans, including gomphotheres , stegodontids , and elephantids . The mammutid "Mammut" borsoni is one of the largest of all proboscideans with an estimated average male body weight of 16 tonnes (35,000 lb) making it one of the largest land mammals of all time, with the tusks of this species being

132-522: The most basal group within Elephantimorpha , with gomphotheres and other members of Elephantida like amebelodonts being more closely related to elephants. Cladogram after Li et al. (2024). Phiomia Losodokodon Eozygodon Zygolophodon (ancestral to Mammut ) Choerolophodontidae Amebelodontidae (shovel tuskers) " Gomphotheriidae " (paraphyletic, ancestral to Elephantidae ) Mammutids originated in Africa during

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144-488: The open Tethyan seaway . However, during the mid- Burdigalian , the tectonic plates of Afro-Arabia and Eurasia collided, creating a terrestrial isthmus connecting the two landmasses. This faunal exchange that resulted is known as the Proboscidean Datum Event. The land bridge allowed the elephantine gomphotheres and other proboscideans to migrate out of Africa and into Eurasia. It is believed that

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