Stegodontids: The Lance Tuskers

Описание: The first half of the Miocene saw the rapid spread and diversification of Proboscideans. As their ancestral African continent pushed northwards and collided with Eurasia, these trunked mammals ventured out across new lands, becoming well established in North America by the Middle Miocene. The most derived clade of Proboscideans were the Elephantoids, being the only forms to survive into modern times. Stegodontids were a basal lineage of Elephantoids that were native to Africa and Asia, with the highly successful genus Stegodon producing up to 13 species. Some of these, such as S. zdanskyi, were enormous animals up to 13.7 feet tall and 12.7 tonnes in weight, while many insular forms that dwelt in Japan, the Philippines and Flores were far smaller. Stegodon persisted into the Late Pleistocene in China.

Another Elephantoid group, the 'Tetralophodont Gomphotheres' were also widespread at around the same time as the Stegodontids. Once thought to be Gomphotheres, recent studies have found them to be close relatives of modern elephants. Some genera, such as Anancus, possessed highly elongated tusks up to 14 feet long. Generally forest dwelling animals, these 'Gomphotheres' died out in Afro-Eurasia roughly 2 million years ago but persisted in North America until about 300,000 years ago. It is possible that the extinction of both groups was caused by climate change during the second half of the Pleistocene, reducing suitable savannah forest habitats, although this remains debated.

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