Elephantoidea

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.

Elephantoidea

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
ElephantidaPBDB
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 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 2 of 1655 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 141 of 1655 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 294 of 1655 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 1193 of 1655 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 6 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 6 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 6 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 6 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 5 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 7 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 11 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 11 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 10 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 10 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 19 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 21 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 52 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 64 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 148 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 335 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 252 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 666 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

1,655 occurrences of Elephantoidea 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

1,655 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

161 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°EWembere-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"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Elephantoidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 137 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 951 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Elephantoidea and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Elephantoidea and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,675 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1,416 sites for Elephantoidea, 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

649 references

Each of the 1,655 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. 637 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 content2

Picture of Elephantoidea

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

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Elephantoidea indet. · mnhn:f:SA15683

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 itElephantida through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gray 1821)