Phanagoroloxodon Temporal range:
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Drawing of the skull in various views | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Proboscidea |
Family: | Elephantidae |
Genus: | †Phanagoroloxodon Garutt, 1957 |
Species: | †P. mammontoides
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Binomial name | |
†Phanagoroloxodon mammontoides Garutt, 1957
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Phanagoroloxodon is an extinct genus of elephant. It is known from one species Phanagoroloxodon mammontoides described from a partial skull found on the banks of the Psekups river in the northwestern Caucasus of Russia, of probable Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene age.[1][2] Phanagoroloxodon has been suggested to share a close common ancestry with Elephas (which contains the living Asian elephant), as well as mammoths (genus Mammuthus), combining characteristics of both genera.[2][3] Like the Asian elephant, the top of the skull has a groove running along the midline, while the tusks are suggested to be twisted, similar to those of mammoths.[2] A 2020 PhD thesis by Steven Zhang suggested that Elephas recki brumpti from the Pliocene of East Africa should be subsumed into the species Elephas planifrons, known from the Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene of the Indian subcontinent, and that this species should be placed as a second species of Phanagoroloxodon. However, these suggestions were rejected by Sanders (2023).[4]