| Prodeinotherium Temporal range: Early Miocene–Mid Miocene |
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|---|---|
| Prodeinotherium bavaricum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Proboscidea |
| Suborder: | †Deinotheroidea |
| Family: | †Deinotheriidae |
| Subfamily: | †Deinotheriinae |
| Genus: | †Prodeinotherium Ehik, 1930 |
| Species | |
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†P. bavaricum (von Meyer, 1831) Ehik, 1930 |
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Prodeinotherium (pro - "before" "terrible beast") is an early representative of the family Deinotheriidae, that lived in Africa, Europe, and Asia in the early and middle Miocene. It was the size of a small elephant, about 9 feet at the shoulders, but differed from elephants in possessing a pair of downward curving tusks on the lower jaw. In appearance and many characters it was like Deinotherium (with which it is placed in the subfamily, Deinotheriinae (Sanders et al. 2004), but differed in being of smaller size, having shorter forelimbs, and also in various details in the shape and form of the teeth.
The earliest species to appear is Prodeinotherium hobleyi, known from the Early Miocene of Kenya and Uganda (about 18 to 20 million years old). A molar of a small prodeinothere from Eritrea may also belong to this species and be of the same age.
Prodeinotherium was larger and more specialised than its Oligocene predecessor Chilgatherium. It flourished for several millions of years, before being suddenly replaced in the middle Miocene by the much larger Deinotherium.