Rhynchotherium

File:Rhynchotherium FLMNH.jpg{{Cite web |date=2023-05-30 |title=Paleontologists discover elephant graveyard in North Florida |url=https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/paleontologists-discover-elephant-graveyard-in-north-florida/ |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=Research News |language=en-US}}]]

Rhynchotherium was first described in 1868 on the basis of a lower jaw from the Miocene of Tlaxcala, Mexico.FALCONER, H. (1868): Paleontological Memoirs. Volume II: 74 –75; London (Hardwicke). Later, the type species epithet R. tlascalae was erected for the jaw by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1918. In 1921, a gomphothere skull from the Mt. Eden area of southern California was described as a subspecies of Trilophodon shepardi (a now-defunct combination for Mastodon shepardi), T. s. edensis,C. Frick. 1921. Extinct vertebrate faunas of the badlands of Bautista Creek and San Timoteo Canyon, southern California. University of California Publications in Geology 12(5):277-424 but was subsequently reassigned to Rhynchotherium.FRICK, C. (1933): New Remains of Trilophodont-Tetralophodont mastodons. – Bulletin American Museum of Natural History, 59: 505 – 652. Other species subsequently assigned to Rhynchotherium included R. falconeri,OSBORN, H. F. (1923): New subfamily, generic and specific stages in the evolution of the proboscidea. – American Museum Novitates, 99: 1– 4. R. paredensis, R. browni,OSBORN, H. F. (1936): Proboscidea: a monograph of the discovery, evolution, migration, and extinction of the mastodonts and elephants of the world, vol. 1: Moeritherioidea, Deinotherioidea, Mastodontoidea. New York (The American Museum Press). and R. simpsoni.OLSEN, S. J. (1957): A new beak-jawed mastodont from Florida. – Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India, 2: 131–135. It was the closest relative to Cuvieronius, and may be ancestral to it.{{cite journal|last1=Mothé|first1=Dimila|last2=Ferretti|first2=Marco P.|last3=Avilla|first3=Leonardo S.|title=The Dance of Tusks: Rediscovery of Lower Incisors in the Pan-American Proboscidean Cuvieronius hyodon Revises Incisor Evolution in Elephantimorpha|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=11|issue=1|pages=e0147009|date=12 January 2016|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0147009|pmid=26756209|pmc=4710528|bibcode=2016PLoSO..1147009M |doi-access=free}}

Lucas and Morgan (2008) reviewed the taxonomy of Rhynchotherium and concluded that only R. edensis, R. falconeri, R. paredensis, R. browni, and R. simpsoni could be confidently referred to Rhynchotherium. Because the genotype of Rhynchotherium is referable to Gomphotherium, the ICZN was petitioned to conserve the genus by designating R. falconeri as the type species,LUCAS, S. G. (2010): Rhynchotherium Falconer, 1868 (Mammalia; Proboscidea): proposed conservation of usage by designation of Rhynchotherium falconeri OSBORN, 1923 as the type species. – Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature, 67: 158 –162. which it did.{{cite web|url=http://iczn.org/content/opinion-2295-case-3515-rhynchotherium-falconer-1868-mammalia-proboscidea-usage-conserved-des|title=OPINION 2295 (Case 3515) Rhynchotherium Falconer, 1868 (Mammalia; Proboscidea): usage conserved by designation of Rhynchotherium falconeri Osborn, 1923 as the type species|date=March 2012}}

File:Rhynchotherium falconeri.png

• Mastodon shepardi Leidy, 1871
• Mastodon euhypodon Cope, 1884 - likely a species of GomphotheriumLUCAS, S.G. & MORGAN, G.S., 2008. Taxonomy of Rhynchotherium (Mammalia, Proboscidea) from the Miocene-Pliocene of North America.- New Mex. Mus. Nat. Hist. Sci. Bull. 44: 71-87.
• Tetrabelodon brevidens Cope, 1889
• Dibelodon praecursor Cope, 1893
• Rhynchotherium rectidens Osborn, 1923
• Aybelodon hondurensis Frick, 1933
• Blickotherium blicki Frick, 1933
• Rhynchotherium anguirivale Osborn, 1936

Phylogenetic position according to Mothé et al. (2016)

{{clade

|label1={{extinct}}Gomphotheriidae (Gomphotheres)

|1={{clade

|1={{extinct}}Gomphotherium

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|2={{clade

|1={{extinct}}Gnathabelodon

|label2=

|2={{clade

|1={{extinct}}Eubelodon

|label2=Brevirostrine clade

|2={{clade

|1={{extinct}}Stegomastodon

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|2={{clade

|1={{extinct}}Sinomastodon

|label2=

|2={{clade

|1={{extinct}}Notiomastodon

|label2=

|2={{clade

|1={{extinct}}Rhynchotherium

|2={{extinct}}Cuvieronius

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Rhynchotherium appears to have travelled in large mixed-age herds. At least two Rhynchotherium death assemblages, dubbed "elephant graveyards", are known from opposite sides of the continent, in California and Florida. The Florida site contains 3,000 individual fossils representing 38 individuals, including at least one complete adult and seven complete juveniles. The site appears to represent an area where Rhynchotherium herds repeatedly became trapped and died, potentially around the curve of a river that they periodically crossed. Some individuals may have also been washed into the site from upstream.{{Cite web |last=Livingston |first=Stephenie |date=2024 |title=What an 'Elephant Graveyard' Teaches Us About Climate Change |url=https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2024/Summer/Conservation/Elephant-Graveyard-Gomphothere-Climate |website=National Wildlife Federation}}

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{{Proboscidea Genera}}

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Category:Gomphotheres

Category:Miocene proboscideans

Category:Pliocene proboscideans

Category:Neogene mammals of North America

Category:Prehistoric placental genera

Category:Fossil taxa described in 1868