Stegodontidae

Stegodontidae (from the Ancient Greek στέγω (stégō), meaning "to cover", and ὀδούς (odoús), meaning "tooth", named for the distinctive ridges on the animal's molars) is an extinct family of proboscideans from Africa and Asia (with a single occurrence in Europe) from the Early Miocene (at least 17.3 million years ago^[1]) to the Late Pleistocene.^[2] It contains two genera, the earlier Stegolophodon, known from the Miocene of Asia and the later Stegodon, from the Late Miocene to Late Pleistocene of Africa and Asia (with a single occurrence in Greece) which is thought to have evolved from the former. The group is noted for their plate-like lophs on their teeth, which are similar to elephants and different from those of other extinct proboscideans like gomphotheres and mammutids, with both groups having a proal jaw movement utilizing forward strokes of the lower jaw. These similarities with modern elephants were probably convergently evolved.^[1] Like elephantids, stegodontids are thought to have evolved from gomphothere ancestors.^[3]

Stegodontidae fue nombrado por Osborn (1918). Fue asignado a Mammutoidea por Carroll (1988); a Elephantoidea por Lambert y Shoshani (1998); y a Elephantoidea por Shoshani et al. (2006). ^{[ 4 ] [ 5 ]} Si bien Stegodon fue históricamente considerado un elefante, esto ahora es ampliamente rechazado, y las similitudes se consideran convergentes. ^{[ 1 ]} A menudo se ha sugerido que Stegodontidae está estrechamente relacionado con los "gomfoterios tetralofodóntidos" y Elephantidae dentro de Elephantimorpha , aunque la posición de Stegodontidae dentro de Elephantimorpha es incierta y posiblemente considerablemente más basal (divergencia temprana), ^{[ 6 ]} con un estudio de 2025 que recuperó con débil apoyo que estaban más estrechamente relacionados con Mammutidae (verdaderos mastodontes). ^{[ 7 ]} Se ha sugerido que el linaje de Stegolophodon surgió del de "Gomphotherium" annectens . ^{[ 8 ] [ 9 ]}