Elephantimorpha

Common card · No. 308505

Elephantimorpha is a clade of proboscideans that contains the Mammutidae (true mastodons), as well as Elephantida, including amebelodonts, choerolophodonts, gomphotheres, stegodontids and elephantids. All members of Elephantimorpha have the horizontal tooth replacement typical of modern elephants, where the cheek teeth progressively migrate forwards in the jaw like a conveyor belt. This a distinctive characteristic of this group (synapomorphy) and is not found in more primitive non-elephantimorph Elephantiformes. Members of Elephantida are distinguished from mammutids by the reduced angular process of the lower jaw. Like modern elephants, the ancestor of Elephantimorpha was likely capable of communicating via infrasonic calls. While early elephantimorphs generally had lower jaws where the fused front part (the mandibular symphysis) was greatly elongated with well developed lower tusks/incisors, from the Late Miocene onwards, many groups convergently developed brevirostrine (shortened)...

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