North American Mammutidae

• Main Author: Saunders, Jeffrey J
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University PressOxford 1996
• Subjects: Bering Strait; Saunders
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198546528.003.0028; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52373693/isbn-9780198546528-book-part-28.pdf

Abstract The North American diversification of elephantoids included representatives of the families Mammutidae, Amebelodontidae, Gomphotheriidae, and Elephantidae (Simpson 1945; Tassy 1985). North American records of these families resulted from one immigration of gomphotheriids (Gomphotherium), two of amebelodontids (Amebelodon, Platybelodon), and one of mammutids (Miomastodon) in the Miocene and two of elephantids (Mammuthus meridionalis, Mammuthus primigenius) in the Pleistocene. This chapter, focusing on North American mammutids, is a synthesis based in part on recent and ongoing work by the author and collaborators on late Pleistocene Mammut americanum (Saunders 1977; King and Saunders 1984; Saunders and Tassy 1989). (Hereafter, Mammut americanum is abbreviated as M. americanum.) Present in North Africa and Europe in the early Miocene (Rusingan and Orleanian mammal ages, respectively; Savage and Russell 1983; Tassy 1990b), gomphotheriids and mammutids appear in North America as immigrants utilizing the Bering Strait in the middle Miocene, c. 15.5 Ma, during the early (Green Hills Fauna phase) Barstovian Mammal Age (e.g. Gomphotherium calvertense, Miomastodon merriami) (Tedford et al. 1987). After a consideration of distinguishing features, this chapter presents a brief overview of the preservation mode of North American Tertiary mammutids and contemporary elephantoids and discusses trends in the history and evolving role of later mammutids that are represented by abundant, well-preserved material.