Page 135 - Prehistoric Animals

Tet-ral-O-Fodon

Tetralophodon

Tetralophodon (four-
ridged tooth) is an extinct ge-
nus of Tetralophodon gompho-
there*. It roamed primarily
in Europe, Asia, and Africa
from the late Miocene, 23 mil-
lion years ago, to the Middle
Pliocene, around 4 to 3 million
years ago. One European spe-
cies, T. longirostris, stood
around 4 metres tall at the
shoulder and weighed in at ap-
proximately 10 tons.

Tetralophodon was a massive, elephant-like, browsing
herbivorous mammal that had four tusks — two upper and two
lower - and a long trunk that enabled it to reach tall, fruit-bearing
trees. Named by Falconer & Cautley, (four-ridged tooth) in 1847
because, unlike the mammals of that era, that had sharp cutting
molars, its molar teeth were blunt and had four ridges across
their surface, a sign, like the elephants of today, it chewed and
crushed its food. It’s also believed it had a back to front chewing
movement of its lower jaw the same movement as made by mod-
ern elephants, but a jaw action not found in earlier gompho-
theres. (Gomphotheres are an extinct group related to modern
elephants)

Tetralophodon is often referred to as a gomphothere, as
it’s assigned to its own family**; Gomphotheriidae. Gompho-
theres are divided into two distinct groups or genera within that
family; Genus Tetralophodon (gomphothere) and genus
Trilophodont (gomphothere). The division is due to the makeup
of their molars. Tetralophodon has four ridges on the fourth pre-
molar and on the first and second molars while Trilophodont has
only three ridges present.

Gomphotheres became extinct around the end of the Plio-
cene, 13 million to 2 million years ago, and beginning of the Pleis-
tocene, two million to 11 thousand years ago.

*Gomphotheres (meaning nail, peg, fastener, joint. Beast) (Wikipedia)
are a paraphyletic (taxonomic term) group that is ancestral to Elephantidae, which
contains modern elephants.
**A taxonomic group containing one or more genera.