Stegodon

Skull of Stegodon at the Natural History Museum, London

• South and East Africa
• South and East Asia

Stegodon is an extinct genus of Proboscidea ( Proboscidea ), which belonged to the group of mastodons. Within the mastodons it was the family of Stegodonten ( Stegodontidae ), whose name derives from the Greek words stegein ( cover ) and odon (tooth ) is derived and related to the pronounced ridges on the back teeth ( molars ) of the animal. Stegodon lived from the Middle Pliocene to late Holocene in Asia and the Middle Pliocene in Africa.

Development and dissemination

Stegodon evolved from Stegolophodon and first appeared in the middle Pliocene in Asia. From here, the genus spread to Africa, where they also occurred south of the Sahara. Here, however, Stegodon disappeared before the Pleistocene. The longest is considered the genus in East Asia, where she was part of the so-called Stegodon - Ailuropoda fauna and became extinct only in the late Holocene. Remains from the Pleistocene can be found from northern China to Java. The latest findings are from the Xiaohe Cave in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan and are about 4,000 years old ( Ma & Tang 1992). To have lived on Flores even 12,000 years ago Stegodon florensis and seem to Java dwarf forms survived up to the end of the Pleistocene.

Features

Previously Stegodon ( Elephantidae ) was the ancestor of the elephant considered, but it is now clear that it is in the Stegodonten a side branch of mastodon, which for a long time contemporaries of modern elephants ( Elephas ) were. Certain similarities to elephants result from convergent developments that led to similar morphological features as they show elephants. These include the relatively short skull and folded back teeth, reminiscent of today's elephants and 6-13 transverse yokes had. The molars of Stegodon passed, however, each ridge develops at an elephant hochkronige plate from a series of low, shingle ridges while. The teeth of the Stegodonten differed significantly from those previously mastodons and enabled Stegodon probably take a large amount of grass food. Most other mastodons are regarded as typical foliage eaters. In stature, however, differed significantly Stegodon of elephants and mastodons had for all typical, relatively long, low body. The shoulder height of an animal of the species S. ganesha, as evidenced for example in the Indian Siwalik deposits, was about 3.05 meters. However, the largest members of the genus were almost 4 meters high and were therefore among the largest proboscis animals at all. The gigantic tusks of the cops were up to three meters long and were so close together that the trunk could not dangle in between and was probably worn about lying. In Java, Sulawesi, Timor and Flores Zwergstegodons developed that were not greater with only 1.2 meters shoulder height than the dwarf elephants of the genus Elephas ( = Palaeoloxodon ).

Way of life

Most likely Stegodon was a herd animal and should have probably lived like today's elephants. Stegodon was an animal of the tropics and subtropics and inhabited probably mainly dense forests and wooded savannah. Finds from northern China suggests that he also pushed forward to in temperate latitudes. The last representatives of the genus inhabited during the late Pleistocene apparently some of the same habitats as the Asian elephant ( Elephas ). Since Stegodon like elephants nourished not only leaves, but also on grasses, it is not clear how the two species could coexist side by side, without getting into too much competition. Maybe Stegodon was something more adapted to deciduous food as elephants.

Species

The following species are assigned to the Stegodon:

• Stegodon aurorae: fossils have been found in Japan.
• Stegodon elephantoides (Myanmar, Java)
• Stegodon florensis (Flores, Indonesia)
• Stegodon ganesha (India)
• Stegodon kaisensis
• Stegodon luzonensis (Philippines)
• Stegodon mindanensis (Philippines)
• Stegodon orientalis (China, Japan) - Oriental Stegodont
• Stegodon shinshuensis (Japan) - Japanese Stegodont
• Stegodon sompoensis ( Sulawesi, Indonesia)
• Stegodon sondaari (Flores, Indonesia)
• Stegodon Trigonocephalus (Java, Indonesiena )
• Stegodon zdanski (China)