Zygolophodon
| Zygolophodon Temporal range: 28.4–2.5 Ma | |
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| Skull | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Proboscidea |
| Family: | †Mammutidae |
| Genus: | †Zygolophodon (Vacek 1877) |
| Species | |
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| The inferred range of Zygolophodon | |
| Synonyms | |
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Zygolophodon is an extinct genus of African, Asian, North American and European mammutid that lived during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs. It may have evolved from Tetralophodon. While collecting fossils in the Clarno Formation of Oregon during 1941, noted paleobotanists Alonzo W. Hancock and Chester A. Arnold recovered the most complete Zygolophodon skull known at the time.[1]
It was one of the largest terrestrial mammals of all time. With a shoulder height of 3.9–4.1 metres (12.8–13.5 ft) and a weight of 14–16 tonnes (15–18 short tons), it approached the size of Paraceratherium, and was heavier than several sauropod dinosaurs.[2]
Zygolophodon tapiroides tusks excavated in Greece
Z. atticus skull
References
- ↑ The Oregon History Project Alonzo Hancock entry
- ↑ Larramendi, A. (2015). "Shoulder height, body mass and shape of proboscideans" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 60. doi:10.4202/app.00136.2014.
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