Strange, Shovel-Tusked Elephants Puzzled Paleontologists,...

What’s Happening

Okay so The animals’ extended lower jaws were seemingly made for scooping, but research over the past few decades has found they could do a lot more than initially expected Strange, Shovel-Tusked Elephants Puzzled Paleontologists, Until the experts Took a Closer Look at Their Teeth The animals extended lower jaws were seemingly made for scooping, but research over the past few decades has found they could do a lot more than initially expected Riley Black - Science Correspondent Get our !

Shovel-tusked elephants like Amebelodon were found out nearly a century ago, and paleontologists have learned more about their anatomy and behavior with time. This 1932 illustration was later found to be inaccurate, as Amebelodon actually had a longer and narrower trunk. (shocking, we know)

Margret Flinsch via Wikimedia Commons under public domain The bones belonged to a prehistoric elephant, that much was certain, but they came from a species unlike any documented before.

The Details

Paleontologists had uncovered a rib and single toe, alongside a nearly immaculate—and truly unusual—jaw. While the joined mandibles looked like those of other fossil elephants at the molars, the lower jaw was ludicrously extended into a shovel-shaped tip with two long tusks.

No jaw like it had ever been seen. When paleontologist Erwin Barbour wrote a preliminary announcement of the bones’ discovery in the summer of 1927, he struggled to imagine how the beast had used its strange-looking tusks.

Why This Matters

Dubbing the animal Amebelodon fricki , Barbour couldn’t get over that shovel-like jaw. “Can it be that this extraordinary mandible was used in dragging out freshwater seaweed or in digging up pond lilies, cattails, reeds and the like? Then again, the jaws seemed to pinch in the middle in a way that would have made them more vulnerable to bending and breaking.

This could have implications for future research in this area.

Key Takeaways

• ” Amebelodon was an oddball, a fossil elephant that did not fit in with the others.
• But the animal was not the only one of its kind.

The Bottom Line

” Amebelodon was an oddball, a fossil elephant that did not fit in with the others. But the animal was not the only one of its kind.

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