Stegotetrabelodon
Temporal range: Late Miocene to Early Pliocene,
Restoration of Stegotetrabelodon syrticus
Stegotetrabelodon syrticus jaw
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Family: Elephantidae
Genus: †Stegotetrabelodon
Petrocchi, 1941
Type species
† Stegotetrabelodon syrticus
Petrocchi, 1941
Species
  • S. syrticus Petrocchi, 1941
  • S. orbus Maglio, 1970
  • S. lybicus Petrocchi, 1943
  • S. emiratus Norman Ali Bassam Khalaf-Prinz Sakerfalke von Jaffa, 2010

Stegotetrabelodon is an extinct genus of primitive elephantid from the Late Miocene to Early Pliocene of Africa and Eurasia and the Arabian peninsula was described by C. Petrocchi in 1941[1]. The type species is S. syrticus of late Miocene Africa, which reached roughly 4 m (13.1 ft) in shoulder height and 11–12 tonnes (12.1–13.2 short tons) in weight[2]. Numerous fossils of S. syrticus have been unearthed in Chad, in Djourab, on several sites in the Toros-Menalla fossil sector from 1998[3]. Since 2006, fossils of S. syrticus have been unearthed in the United Arab Emirates. Presenting slight differences they were defined as S. syrticus emiratus[4].

The other unequivocally recognized species are S. orbus, also of late Miocene Africa. Other species outside of Africa are questionably placed in this genus, including teeth from Late Miocene Hungary and Iran originally described as being of the Mastodon subgenus Bunolophodon, Chinese specimens originally described as being also of Mastodon, as well as of Tetralophodon and Stegodon, and a species from the late Miocene-aged Dhok Pathan Formation in Pakistan, S. maluvalensis[5].

In comparison to later elephantids, Stegotetrabelodon has several primitive features, including the retention of permanent premolar teeth, an elongated mandibular symphysis and large lower tusks, shared with its gomphothere ancestors[6]. The lower tusks are the longest known among proboscideans, reaching a length of 2.2 metres (7.2 ft), though they weighted only around 12.5 kilograms (28 lb), with the upper tusks also being large, reaching a length of 2.8 metres (9.2 ft) and weight exceeding 40 kilograms (88 lb) in S. syrticus[7].

Since 2001, researchers in the United Arab Emirates studied several trails of proboscidean footprints that they attributed to S. syrticus emiratus unearthed nearby. These footprints are preserved on a large limestone outcrop between the sand dunes of "Mleisa 1". A track of a large solitary individual, measuring approximately 290 m (950 ft), was subsequently crossed on undeterminable dates by thirteen parallel tracks, measuring approximately 170 m (560 ft), due to individuals of varying sizes[4].

References

  1. ↑ Petrocchi, C. (1941) Il giacimento fossilifero di Sahabi, vol. 60 (1), coll. Bollettino della Societa Geologico Italiana, 1941, 107-114 p.
  2. ↑ Larramendi, A. (2016). "Shoulder height, body mass and shape of proboscideans" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 61. doi:10.4202/app.00136.2014. S2CID 2092950.
  3. ↑ Mackaye Hassan Taïsso, Les proboscidiens du mio-pliocène du Tchad : biodiversité, biochronologie, paléoécologie et paléobiogéographie Thesis, Chapter III pp. 163-169, Plates 10-12.
  4. 1 2 Norman Ali Bassam Khalaf-Prinz Sakerfalke von Jaffa, 2010 Stegotetrabelodon syrticus emiratus Khalaf, 2010 : A New Fossil Four-Tusked Elephant Subspecies from the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin, 98, February 2010.
  5. ↑ Whybrow, P.J. (1999). Faqārīyāt Al-uḥfūrīyah Fī Al-Jazīrah Al-ʻArabīyah. Yale University Press. p. 523. ISBN 0-300-07183-3.
  6. ↑ Athanassiou, Athanassios (2022), Vlachos, Evangelos (ed.), "The Fossil Record of Continental Elephants and Mammoths (Mammalia: Proboscidea: Elephantidae) in Greece", Fossil Vertebrates of Greece Vol. 1, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 345–391, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-68398-6_13, ISBN 978-3-030-68397-9, S2CID 245067102, retrieved 2023-11-21.
  7. ↑ Larramendi, Asier (2023-12-10). "Estimating tusk masses in proboscideans: a comprehensive analysis and predictive model". Historical Biology: 1–14. doi:10.1080/08912963.2023.2286272. ISSN 0891-2963.
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