Platybelodon


Platybelodon was a genus of large herbivorous mammals related to the elephant. It lived during the middle Miocene Epoch in Africa, Asia and the Caucasus.

Description

Platybelodon was very similar to Amebelodon, another closely related gomphothere genus. Due to the shape of the two lower teeth, like many gomphothere genera they are popularly known as "shovel tuskers".

Palaeobiology

Platybelodon was previously believed to have fed in the swampy areas of grassy savannas, using its teeth to shovel up aquatic and semi-aquatic vegetation. However, wear patterns on the teeth suggest that it used its lower tusks to strip bark from trees, and may have used the sharp incisors that formed the edge of the "shovel" more like a modern-day scythe, grasping branches with its trunk and rubbing them against the lower teeth to cut it from a tree. Adult animals in particular might have eaten coarser vegetation more frequently than juveniles.

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