Gomphothere: Difference between revisions

'''Gomphotheres''' are an extinct group of [[proboscidea]]ns related to modern [[Elephant|elephants. They were]], widespread across [[Afro-Eurasia]] and [[North America]] during the [[Miocene]] and [[Pliocene]] epochs and dispersed into [[South America]] during the [[Pleistocene]] as part of the [[Great American Interchange]]. Gomphotheres are a [[Paraphyly|paraphyletic]] group that is ancestral to [[Elephantidae]], which contains modern elephants, as well as [[Stegodontidae]].

While most famous forms such as ''[[Gomphotherium]]'' had long lower jaws with tusks, which is the [[Plesiomorphy and symplesiomorphy|ancestral condition]] for the group, some later members developed shortened (brevirostrine) lower jaws with either vestigial or no lower tusks, lookingand outlasted the long-jawed gomphotheres. This change made them look very similar to modern elephants, an example of [[parallel evolution]], which outlasted the long-jawed gomphotheres. By the end of the [[Early Pleistocene]], gomphotheres became extinct in [[Afro-Eurasia]],. with theThe last two genera continued existing in the [[New World]], with ''[[Cuvieronius]]'' ranging from southern North America to western South America, and ''[[Notiomastodon]]'' having a wide rangeranging over most of South America, until the end of the Pleistocene around 12,000 years ago, when they became extinct following the [[Peopling of the Americas|arrival of humans]].