Elephantimorpha

Elephantimorpha is a clade of proboscideans that contains the Mammutidae, as well as Elephantida, including amebelodonts, choerolophodonts, gomphotheres, stegodontids and elephantids. All members of Elephantimorpha have the horizontal tooth replacement typical of modern elephants, where the cheek teeth progressively migrate forwards in the jaw like a conveyor belt. This a distinctive characteristic of this group (synapomorphy) and is not found in more primitive non-elephantimorph Elephantiformes. Members of Elephantida are distinguished from mammutids by the reduced angular process of the lower jaw. Like modern elephants, the ancestor of Elephantimorpha was likely capable of communicating via infrasonic calls. While early elephantimorphs generally had lower jaws where the fused front part was greatly elongated with well developed lower tusks/incisors, from the Late Miocene onwards, many groups convergently developed brevirostrine (shortened) lower jaws with vestigial or no lower tusks, probably corresponding with the elongation and increasingly dexterity of the trunk allowing it to be used as the primary feeding organ. The closest relatives of modern elephants within Elephantida, typically including Stegodontidae and the "tetralophodont gomphotheres" are placed as part of the clade Elephantoidea, though this clade has also been used historically as equivalent in scope to Elephantimorpha or Elephantida.

Elephantimorpha

AbstractionBlue · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ElephantiformesPBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Proboscidea
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Proboscidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 0 of 2387 occurrencesOligocene — about 7 of 2387 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 324 of 2387 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 378 of 2387 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1652 of 2387 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 4 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 9 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 10 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 11 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 14 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 21 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 20 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 23 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 25 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 29 occurrences10–9.2 Mya — about 29 occurrences9.2–8.1 Mya — about 31 occurrences8.1–6.9 Mya — about 35 occurrences6.9–5.8 Mya — about 42 occurrences5.8–4.6 Mya — about 84 occurrences4.6–3.5 Mya — about 126 occurrences3.5–2.3 Mya — about 306 occurrences2.3–1.2 Mya — about 422 occurrences1.2–0 Mya — about 1132 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka34.6 Mya0 Mya

2,387 occurrences of Elephantimorpha on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

2,387 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

229 formations

Shungura — 5.08°N, 36.03°EShungura — 5.03°N, 36.02°EShungura — 5.15°N, 36.04°EShungura — 5.09°N, 36.06°EKoobi Fora — 3.87°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 3.59°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 3.90°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 3.98°N, 36.32°EKoobi Fora — 4.07°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 4.31°N, 36.28°EKoobi Fora — 4.23°N, 36.43°EKoobi Fora — 3.75°N, 36.36°EKoobi Fora — 3.70°N, 36.32°EKoobi Fora — 4.28°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 3.94°N, 36.25°EKoobi Fora — 4.28°N, 36.38°EKoobi Fora — 4.06°N, 36.33°EKoobi Fora — 3.75°N, 36.34°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENachukui — 3.08°N, 35.83°ENachukui — 3.87°N, 35.72°ENachukui — 3.93°N, 35.76°ENachukui — 4.15°N, 35.74°ENachukui — 4.05°N, 35.73°ENachukui — 4.53°N, 35.92°ENachukui — 4.10°N, 35.77°ENachukui — 4.21°N, 35.78°EHadar — 11.13°N, 40.59°EVogel River Series — 3.23°S, 35.23°EVogel River Series — 3.26°S, 35.18°EVogel River Series — 3.01°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EAdu-Asa — 10.32°N, 40.25°EAdu-Asa — 10.37°N, 40.23°EAdu-Asa — 10.43°N, 40.42°ENkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°ESagantole — 10.62°N, 40.58°ESagantole — 10.63°N, 40.54°ESagantole — 10.47°N, 40.50°ESagantole — 10.50°N, 40.58°ESagantole — 10.45°N, 40.45°EWalanae — 4.27°S, 120.00°EWalanae — 4.39°S, 120.00°EWalanae — 4.39°S, 120.05°EWalanae — 4.18°S, 120.02°EOlduvai — 2.96°S, 35.29°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 34.32°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 35.37°EChiwondo — 10.17°S, 34.00°EChiwondo — 9.83°S, 34.83°EChiwondo — 10.33°S, 34.17°EChiwondo — 10.00°S, 33.92°EChiwondo — 9.92°S, 34.92°EChiwondo — 10.05°S, 33.96°E"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WWembere-Manonga — 3.86°S, 33.71°EWembere-Manonga — 4.02°S, 33.83°EWembere-Manonga — 3.09°S, 33.73°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EOlorgesailie — 1.57°S, 36.44°ENawata and Nachukui — 2.88°N, 36.07°ENawata and Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EHumbu — 2.33°S, 35.97°EIrrawaddy — 20.43°N, 94.92°EIrrawaddy — 21.83°N, 94.72°EIrrawaddy — 21.87°N, 95.95°EIrrawaddy — 21.67°N, 94.82°EIrrawaddy — 19.69°N, 95.30°ENagrota — 32.70°N, 74.85°ETatrot — 30.73°N, 76.78°EWehaietu — 10.90°N, 40.48°EWehaietu — 10.57°N, 40.58°EWehaietu — 10.63°N, 40.54°EWehaietu — 10.72°N, 40.50°EWehaietu — 10.32°N, 40.55°ELukeino — 0.50°N, 35.67°EWarwire — 1.50°N, 31.00°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.46°N, 1.73°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.93°N, 1.30°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.88°N, 1.44°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Elephantimorpha has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 205 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 1,555 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Elephantimorpha and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Elephantimorpha and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,852 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 1,717 sites for Elephantimorpha, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

828 references

Each of the 2,387 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 816 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Elephantimorpha

Credit
AbstractionBlue
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itElephantiformes through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Tassy and Shoshani 1997