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Platybelodon

Platybelodon ("flat-spear tusk") is an extinct genus of large herbivorous proboscidean mammals related to modern-day elephants, placed in the "shovel tusker" family Amebelodontidae. Species lived during the middle Miocene Epoch in Africa, Asia and the Caucasus.

Platybelodon
Temporal range: Miocene, 15–10 Ma
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Platybelodon grangeri skeleton, Inner Mongolia Museum
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Family: †Amebelodontidae
Subfamily: †Platybelodontinae
Genus: †Platybelodon
Borissiak, 1928
Type species
†Platybelodon danovi
Borissiak, 1928
Species
  • P. grangeri Osborn, 1929
  • P. beliajevae Alexeeva, 1971
  • P. tongxinensis Chen, 1978
  • P. tetralophus Wang and Li, 2022

Distribution

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P. grangeri fossils are known from China.[1]

Palaeobiology

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Platybelodon was previously believed to have fed in the swampy areas of grassy savannas, using its teeth to shovel up aquatic and semi-aquatic vegetation. However, wear patterns on the teeth suggest that it used its lower tusks to strip bark from trees, and may have used the sharp incisors that formed the edge of the "shovel" more like a modern-day scythe, grasping branches with its trunk and rubbing them against the lower teeth to cut it from a tree.[2] Adults in particular might have eaten coarser vegetation more frequently than juveniles.[3]

Ontogenetic growth series (from fetus to adult)
 
 
 

Images

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  •  
    P. grangeri reconstruction with size comparison.
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    Life reconstruction of P. grangeri.
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    P. grangeri skull.
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    P. grangeri molar.
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    P. danovi skull, National Natural History Museum of China
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    Outdated 1932 restoration of P. grangeri as a swamp-dweller.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Sun, Bo-Yang; Wang, Xiu-Xi; Ji, Min-Xiao; Pang, Li-Bo; Shi, Qin-Qin; Hou, Su-Kuan; Sun, Dan-Hui; Wang, Shi-Qi (June 2018). "Miocene mammalian faunas from Wushan, China and their evolutionary, biochronological, and biogeographic significances". Palaeoworld. 27 (2): 258–270. doi:10.1016/j.palwor.2017.08.001. Retrieved 30 September 2024 – via Elsevier Science Direct.
  2. ^ Lambert, W.D (1992). "The feeding habits of the shovel-tusked gomphotheres: evidence from tusk wear patterns". Paleobiology. 18 (2): 132–147. Bibcode:1992Pbio...18..132L. doi:10.1017/S0094837300013932. JSTOR 2400995. S2CID 87230816.
  3. ^ Semprebon, Gina; Tao, Deng; Hasjanova, Jelena; Solounias, Nikos (2016). "An examination of the dietary habits of Platybelodon grangeri from the Linxia Basin of China: Evidence from dental microwear of molar teeth and tusks". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 457: 109–116. Bibcode:2016PPP...457..109S. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.06.012.

Further reading

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  • Harry Cox, Colin Harrison, R.J.G. Savage, and Brian Gardiner. (1999): The Simon & Schuster Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures: A Visual Who's Who of Prehistoric Life. Simon & Schuster.
  • Jordi Agusti and Mauricio Anton. (2002): Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids. Pg.90, Columbia University Press.
  • Jayne Parsons.(2001): Dinosaur Encyclopedia. Pg.260, Dorling Kindersley.
  • David Norman. (2001): The Big Book Of Dinosaurs. Pg.420-421, Welcome Books.
  • Hazel Richardson.(2003): Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals (Smithsonian Handbooks). Pg.173, Dorling Kindersley.
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