Deinotherium

Deinotherium is an extinct genus of large proboscideans whose distinctive tusks curved downward from the lower jaw. It lived in Africa and Eurasia from the Miocene into the Pleistocene.

Proboscidea: The mammalian order containing elephants and their extinct relatives, including mammoths and mastodons. Deinotherium belongs to this order but developed a tusk arrangement unlike living elephants.
Deinotherium giganteum: A large species of Deinotherium known from Miocene and Pliocene deposits in Europe. Its European fossils document one of the genus’s best-known later forms.
Lower tusks: Tusks that grow from the lower jaw rather than the upper jaw. Deinotherium’s defining feature was a pair of downward-curving lower tusks.
Miocene: A geological epoch lasting from about 23 million to 5.3 million years ago. Much of Deinotherium’s diversification and geographic spread occurred during this epoch.
Deinotheriidae: An extinct family of proboscideans that includes Deinotherium and its earlier relatives. This family traces the lineage behind Deinotherium’s distinctive anatomy.
Deinotherium bozasi: A species of Deinotherium that lived in Africa during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Its African remains show the genus persisted there after disappearing from much of Eurasia.
Proboscidean molars: Large, ridged cheek teeth used by elephants and their extinct relatives to grind vegetation. Its molar structure helps reconstruct the kinds of plant material it processed.
Pliocene: A geological epoch lasting from about 5.3 million to 2.6 million years ago. Deinotherium survived into the Pliocene as environments and mammal communities changed.
Proboscidean tusk evolution: The evolutionary history of tusks among elephants and their extinct relatives. Deinotherium’s lower-jaw tusks represent an unusual direction in proboscidean tusk evolution.
Deinotherium giganteum at Eppelsheim: A celebrated fossil occurrence of Deinotherium giganteum near Eppelsheim in Germany. The Eppelsheim discovery helped establish the genus’s presence in Europe.

Linked from 3 pages

PlatybelodonCompared with: Its lower tusks were curved rather than broad, shovel-like blades.