
The Platybelodon was one of the ancestors that gave rise to modern elephants, though not unique, but so is the strangest appearance.
The Platybelodon was herbivorous, and like the current hippos, spent much time in the swamp water where they feed on aquatic plants. One of the most curious features of this animal from the Miocene was his two bottom teeth shovel-shaped. Two teeth were disproportionately long and wide, however, the teeth (protruding into the mammoths, mastodons and elephants) were small and insignificant.
Another use of these teeth is lower than was to grab the trunk and branches, serrated rubbing against the lower teeth to cut the tree.


i wish i could have touched one of these lol they look scary but cool - Adrion McClam
ReplyDeleteWorld is lot more interesting than the concrete jungles we live in...if someday we could travel in the past it will change everything.
ReplyDeleteProblem is with going back in time is that people would see it as a way to solve wood production, exept chopping down one tree then would eliminate the possibility of tens of thousands of other trees from being made.
DeleteSorry, but the text reads like a poor translation from another language, tense bouncing around from past to present, and dubious word choices. The teeth protruding, I think that is supposed to be a discussion of tusks, the sentence as presented is very badly formed. There is hardly a single sentence in the entire text which doesn't have some painful grammar error.
ReplyDeleteIncredible animal. Just imagine the churning up of the swamps that creature would have performed. Wild pigs would be mild in comparison. I must dispute the assertion in your first paragraph that Platybelodon is one of the "ancestors that gave rise to modern elephants". In the fossil record, when a creature is found and its relationships determined, the closest that can be said is that it had a degree of cousinhood to an ancestor of something. So in Platybelodon's case, your text should probably read "Platybelodon is a Gomphothere, which is a family group that is close cousins to the the modern elephants and mammoth and they shared a common ancestor". Here is a link to an article which shows a diagram: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephantoidea
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