Stegodon
Stegodon is a genus of extinct elephant. They lived from the late Miocene to the late Pleistocene.
| Stegodon | |
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| Stegodon skeleton at the Gansu Provincial Museum. | |
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| Family: | Stegodontidae
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| Subfamily: | Stegodontinae
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| Genus: | Stegodon
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Fossils are found in Asian and African strata dating from the late Miocene. They lived in large parts of Asia, East and Central Africa and North America during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs.[1][2]
Some Stegodon species were among the largest of all elephants. Some adults were 13 feet (4 m) high at the shoulder and 26 feet (8 m) long, not including 10 feet (3m) long nearly straight tusks. A few were much smaller, living on islands.
Browser rather than grazer
The teeth of Stegodon show that it was mainly a browser. As time passed, grassland increasingly took the place of forests, and browsers were at something of a disadvantage. No doubt, they were also hunted by early man.
Stegodon Media
Life-sized models of Stegodon
Fossils of S. aurorae (left) and S. orientalis (right) at the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo
Jaw fossil of S. sondaari at the Bandung Geological Museum
Fossil of Stegodon, an extinct mammal -- Took the photo at Natural History Museum, London
References
- ↑ PaleoBiology Database: Stegodon, basic info
- ↑ Saegusa H. 2001. Comparisons of Stegodon and Elephantid abundances in the late Pleistocene of southern China. In The World of Elephants -- Second International Congress (Rome, 2001). 345-349.