Stegodon

Stegodon is an extinct genus of proboscidean, related to elephants. It was originally assigned to the family Elephantidae along with modern elephants but is now placed in the extinct family Stegodontidae. Like elephants, Stegodon had teeth with plate-like lophs that are different from those of more primitive proboscideans like gomphotheres and mammutids. Fossils of the genus are known from Africa and across much of Asia, as far southeast as Timor. The oldest fossils of the genus are found in Late Miocene strata in Asia, likely originating from the more archaic Stegolophodon, subsequently migrating into Africa. While the genus became extinct in Africa during the Pliocene, Stegodon persisted in South, Southeast and Eastern Asia into the Late Pleistocene.

Stegodon

Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China · CC0 · 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
ElephantidaePBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Elephantidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Elephantidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 5.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 129 occurrencesMiocene — about 20 of 129 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 36 of 129 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 71 of 129 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–10 Mya — about 2 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 14 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 19 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 14 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 15 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 39 occurrences5.333 Mya11.7 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

129 occurrences of Stegodon on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

129 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

28 formations

Walanae — 4.27°S, 120.00°EWalanae — 4.39°S, 120.00°EWalanae — 4.39°S, 120.05°EWalanae — 4.18°S, 120.02°EYuanmou — 24.87°N, 100.94°ENkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°EWarwire — 1.50°N, 31.00°ETatrot — 30.73°N, 76.78°EOla Bula — 8.65°S, 121.12°EWalane — 4.38°S, 119.96°EWalane — 4.27°S, 120.09°EIrrawaddy — 20.43°N, 94.92°EIrrawaddy — 21.83°N, 94.72°EIrrawaddy — 21.87°N, 95.95°ENagrota — 32.70°N, 74.85°EAdu-Asa — 10.32°N, 40.25°EPinjor — 32.99°N, 73.67°ENishiyagi — 34.63°N, 134.98°EBredasdorp & Varswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°ELatamne — 35.13°N, 36.75°EAwidon Mesa — 17.50°N, 121.58°EShagou — 25.70°N, 101.87°ETsunozu — 35.26°N, 132.22°EKasumi — 35.72°N, 139.26°EHirayama — 35.65°N, 139.38°EKomiya — 35.70°N, 139.37°EWanlanae — 4.38°S, 120.02°ETanrung — 4.27°S, 120.09°EOlan Bula — 8.69°S, 121.13°EMpesida — 0.83°N, 35.83°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Stegodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 68 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Stegodon and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Stegodon and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

658 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 113 sites for Stegodon, 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

70 references

Each of the 129 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. 58 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 content3

Picture of Stegodon

Credit
Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Stegodon trigonocephalus · HLH:ML:202502

3D model

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

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itElephantidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Falconer 1857)