Platybelodon

Platybelodon skeleton

• North America
• Russia
• Asia
• Kenya

Platybelodon (also Schaufelzähner ) is an extinct genus of elephant animals whose fossil remains from the middle and late Miocene ( 13.7 to 5.332 mya ) originate.

How Gomphotherium and other Gomphotheriden decreed Platybelodon four tusks. In the maxilla, these were greatly reduced and directed obliquely forwards down. In the elongated lower jaw, the two flat incisors grow together and widened shovel-shaped.

Platybelodon was up to 6 meters long and up to 2.8 meters high. The living animal in herds was hard up to 4.5 tons.

It is believed that Platybelodon in the swampy parts of the grasslands was at home and dug with the shovel-like teeth with the help of the proboscis marsh plants. Platybelodon is closely related to Amebelodon.

In Europe, the original form of the shovel elephant was found Archaeobelodon who lived 15 million years ago. 2004 succeeded Paleontologists from Augsburg, to excavate a nearly complete skeleton. In Paris, the world's only skeleton assembly of Archaeobelodon filholi can be seen. It is at the Muséum national d' histoire naturelle in the Jardin des Plantes.

Species

• Platybelodon barnumbrowni
• Platybelodon dangheesis
• Platybelodon loomisi