Amebelodontidae

Amebelodont Temporal range: Miocene - Pliocene
Platybelodon skeleton in a Hubei, China, museum
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Proboscidea
Clade:	Elephantida
Family:	†Amebelodontidae Barbour, 1927
Genera
†Afromastodon Pickford, 2003 †Amebelodon Barbour, 1927 †Aphanobelodon Wang, Deng, Ye, He, and Chen, 2016 †Archaeobelodon Tassy, 1984 †Eurybelodon Lambert, 2016 †Konobelodon Lambert, 1990 †Platybelodon Borissiak, 1928 †Progomphotherium Pickford, 2003 †Protanancus Arambourg, 1945 †Serbelodon Frick, 1933 †Torynobelodon Barbour, 1929

Amebelodontidae is an extinct family of large herbivorous mammals that were closely related to elephants. They were assigned to Gomphotheriidae in the past, but recent authors consider them a distinct family.

Feeding habits

Amebelodonts' feeding habits are portrayed as scooping up water plants due to their mandibular tusks which have a shovel-like shape. However, this is a misconception because the upper tusks are never taken into consideration. The wear pattern on the mandibular tusks of Platybelodon grangeri and P. barnumbrowni indicate that these taxa used their tusks to cut through vegetation in a specialized way.

Gallery

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  Archaeobelodon filholi mandible
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  Skull of Platybelodon grangeri