Stegodontidae is an extinct family of

proboscidea The Proboscidea (; , ) are a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family (Elephantidae) and several extinct families. First described by J. Illiger in 1811, it encompasses the elephants and their close relatives. From ...

ns from Africa and Asia (with a single occurrence in Europe) from the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

(15.97 mya) to the

Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of ...

, with some studies suggesting that some survived into the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

in China (until as recently as 4.1 thousand years ago), although this is disputed. It contains two genera, the earlier ''

Stegolophodon ''Stegolophodon'' is an extinct genus of stegodontid proboscideans, with two tusks and a trunk. It lived during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, and may have evolved into ''Stegodon ''Stegodon'' ("roofed tooth" from the Ancient Greek words ...

'', known from the Early Miocene of Asia and the later ''

Stegodon ''Stegodon'' ("roofed tooth" from the Ancient Greek words , , 'to cover', + , , 'tooth' because of the distinctive ridges on the animal's molars) is an extinct genus of proboscidean, related to elephants. It was originally assigned to the famil ...

,'' from the Late Miocene to Late Pleistocene of Africa and Asia (with a single occurrence in Greece) which derived from the former. The group is noted for their plate-like lophs on their teeth, which are similar to elephants and different from those than of other extinct proboscideans like

gomphotheres Gomphotheres are any members of the diverse, extinct taxonomic family Gomphotheriidae. Gomphotheres were elephant-like proboscideans, but do not belong to the family Elephantidae. They were widespread across Afro-Eurasia and North America during ...

and

mastodons A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...

. This similarity with modern elephants may have been

convergently evolved Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last com ...

, however.

Taxonomy

Stegodontidae was named by Osborn (1918). It was assigned to Mammutoidea by Carroll (1988); to

Elephantoidea Elephantoidea is a taxonomic group that contains the elephants as well as their closest extinct relatives. The following cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to sh ...

by Lambert and Shoshani (1998); and to

by Shoshani et al. (2006). J. Shoshani, R. C. Walter, M. Abraha, S. Berhe, P. Tassy, W. J. Sanders, G. H. Marchant, Y. Libsekal, T. Ghirmai and D. Zinner. 2006. A proboscidean from the late Oligocene of Eritrea, a "missing link" between early Elephantiformes and Elephantimorpha, and biogeographic implications. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(46) It contains two of extinct elephant-like

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

: Like all

ns, the clade's position is uncertain: Some authors place it as a daughter clade under the

Elephantidae Elephantidae is a family (biology), family of large, herbivorous proboscidean mammals collectively called elephants and mammoths. These are terrestrial animal, terrestrial large mammals with a snout modified into a Elephant#Trunk, trunk and teeth ...

, while others make the Stegodontidae a sister-clade to the Elephantidae.

References

Miocene proboscideans Pleistocene proboscideans Pliocene proboscideans Cenozoic mammals of Africa Cenozoic mammals of Asia Pleistocene extinctions Miocene first appearances Prehistoric mammal families {{paleo-proboscidean-stub