Stegomastodon

Stegomastodon Temporal range: Late Pliocene to Pleistocene
S. mirificus fossil at the Smithsonian natural history museum
Conservation status
Fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Proboscidea
Family:	†Gomphotheriidae
Genus:	†Stegomastodon Pohlig, 1912
Species
†S. mirificus †S. primitivus †S. waringi †S. platensis

Stegomastodon ('roof breast tooth') is an extinct genus of gomphothere, a family of proboscideans. It is not to be confused with the genus Mammut from a different proboscidean family, whose members are commonly called "mastodons", nor with the genus Stegodon, from yet another proboscidean sub-family, whose members are commonly called "stegodonts".

Restoration of S. mirificus

Skull

It stood 2.8 metres (9 ft) tall and looked like a robust version of the modern elephant. It weighed about 6,000 kilograms (13,000 lb). Like modern elephants, but unlike most of its closer relatives, it had just two tusks. These tusks curved upwards and were about 3.5 metres (11 ft) long. Stegomastodon's molars were covered in enamel and had a complex pattern of ridges and knobbly protrusions on them, giving the creature a large chewing surface that enabled it to eat grass. It lived in North and South America, and its brain weighed about 11 pounds (5 kg).

The two South American species arrived following the Great American Interchange. They were initially mixed feeders; S. waringi evolved towards grazing, while S. platensis evolved towards browsing.^[1] The Stegomastodon species occupied warmer, lower-altitude habitats east of the Andes, while the related gomphothere Cuvieronius hyodon occupied cooler, higher-altitude habitats.^[1]

References