Cuvieronius

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iCuvieronius
Fossil range: Pliocene to Recent
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Family: Gomphotheriidae
Genus: Cuvieronius
Osborn, 1923
Species
  • C. priestleyi
  • C. tropicus

Cuvieronius is an extinct genus of proboscid.

Cuvieronius named after the French naturalist Georg Cuvier, stood 2.7m (9 ft) tall and looked like a modern elephant except for its spiral-shaped tusks. The creature initially evolved in North America, but was also one of the few probocids mammals to colonize South America reaching there around 2 million years ago, traveling as far south as Argentina. It survived well into the human era, going extinct due to hunting around the year 400. The fact that Cuvieronius went extict around A.D. 400 rules out the possibility that the climate change at the end of the ice age was the cause of their extinction. Fossils have been found in Florida, Arizona, and Argentina.

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