Platybelodon

Platybelodon is an extinct genus of amebelodontid proboscidean mammal, distantly related to modern-day elephants. Fossils are known from middle Miocene strata from parts of Asia and the Caucasus. The first specimens of Platybelodon, consisting of a partial skull, a nearly complete lower jaw, and multiple disarticulated remains, were discovered in the Tchokrak beds of north Caucasus, in the summer of 1927. The following year, Russian palaeontologist Alexey Borissiak described the remains, giving them the name Platybelodon danovi. Several additional species have been described, including Platybelodon grangeri, named by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1928.

Platybelodon

Popolon · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AmebelodontinaePBDB
Diet
browserPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Length
6 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 7.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 8.725 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 4.7 Mya.

Miocene — about 25 of 25 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 25 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 4 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.8–9.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences9.2–8.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences8.7–8.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences8.1–7.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.5–7.0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.0–6.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences6.4–5.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.9–5.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.3–4.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.8–4.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15.98 Mya8.725 Mya20.9 Mya4.2 Mya

25 occurrences of Platybelodon on record, most of them in the Miocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

25 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

11 formations

Shanwang — 34.26°N, 108.94°ELengshuigou — 34.26°N, 108.94°ELengshuigou — 34.33°N, 109.27°EAsh Hollow — 42.80°N, 100.80°WXianshuihe — 43.65°N, 112.66°ELothidok — 3.33°N, 35.75°EMagian suite — 39.50°N, 67.61°EHalamagai — 46.97°N, 87.47°EKoujiacun — 34.15°N, 109.32°EHujialiang — 35.58°N, 103.42°ETiejianggou — 39.49°N, 94.73°EDongxiang — 35.30°N, 103.29°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Platybelodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Platybelodon and its relatives

Miocene

Where Platybelodon and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

236 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Platybelodon, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

14 references

Each of the 25 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 2 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Platybelodon

Credit
Popolon
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAmebelodontinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Borissiak 1928