Platybelodon sp. (juvenile)
Miocene
Gansu Province
China

Gorgeous, big 270mm jaws with 6 teeth.

Mammal. Probiscidean. Proboscidea. Elephant.

Platybelodon is a genus belonging to the Order Proboscidea, which includes the modern elephant and its relatives. You can’t really call it an “elephant” because it belongs to a separate family so it’s more of an offshoot of that lineage. Besides, unlike an elephant, it had both lower jaw tusks and upper jaw tusks with a bigger mouth too.

Platybelodon, which lived during the Middle Miocene, has been long-considered a “shovel-tusker” using its odd lower tusks to scoop up vegetation in swamps but a close study of the wear on the tusks indicates that these animals stripped bark, twigs, and leaves from trees instead.

This is a very nice specimen with much of the lower dentition well-preserved. An excellent display piece.