Notiomastodon
Extinct genus of mammals / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Notiomastodon is an extinct genus of gomphothere proboscidean (related to modern elephants), endemic to South America from the Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene.[1] Notiomastodon specimens reached a size similar to that of the modern Asian elephant, with a body mass of 3-4 tonnes. Like other brevirostrine gomphotheres such as Cuvieronius and Stegomastodon, Notiomastodon had a shortened lower jaw and lacked lower tusks, unlike more primitive gomphotheres like Gomphotherium.
Notiomastodon | |
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Skeleton at the Centro Cultural del Bicentenario de Santiago del Estero | |
Skull at the Natural History Museum, London | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Proboscidea |
Family: | †Gomphotheriidae |
Genus: | †Notiomastodon Cabrera, 1929 |
Species: | †N. platensis |
Binomial name | |
†Notiomastodon platensis (Ameghino, 1888) [originally Mastodon] | |
Synonyms | |
Genus synonymy:
Species synonymy: List
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The genus was originally named in 1929, and has been controversial in the course of taxonomic history as it has frequently been confused with or synonymized with forms called Haplomastodon and Stegomastodon. Extensive anatomical studies since the 2010s have shown that Notiomastodon represents the only valid proboscidean in lowland South America, Haplomastodon is synonymous and Stegomastodon is limited to North America, with the only other gomphothere in South America Cuvieronius confined to the northwestern part of the continent.
Notiomastodon ranged widely over most of South America, and was a generalist mixed feeder that fed on a variety of plants, with its diet varying according to local conditions. Like living elephants, Notiomastodon is thought to have lived in family groups, with adult males suggested to have had musth-like behaviour.
Notiomastodon became extinct approximately 11,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, simultaneously along with the majority of large (megafaunal) animals native to the Americas as part of the Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions. During the last few thousand years of its existence, Notiomastodon lived alongside Paleoindians, the first human to inhabit the Americas. Specimens associated with artifacts suggest that humans hunted Notiomastodon, which may have been a factor in its extinction.