Stegodontidae

Stegodontidae Temporal range: Miocene–Holocene PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Conservation status
Fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Proboscidea
Family:	†Stegodontidae Osborn (1918)
Genera
†Stegodon †Stegolophodon

Stegodontidae is an extinct family of proboscideans that lived from the Miocene through the Pleistocene period, endemic to Africa and Asia from 20.43 to 0.0041 Ma, living for approximately 20.4259 million years.^[1] Although commonly regarded a family, they are often seen as a subfamily (Stegodontinae) of the true elephants (family Elephantidae).

Taxonomy

Stegodontidae was named by Osborn (1918). It was assigned to Mammutoidea by Carroll (1988); to Elephantoidea by Lambert and Shoshani (1998); and to Elephantoidea by Shoshani et al. (2006).^[2][3]

References

1. Paleobiology database: Stegodontidae basic info
2. R. L. Carroll. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York 1-698
3. J. Shoshani, R. C. Walter, M. Abraha, S. Berhe, P. Tassy, W. J. Sanders, G. H. Marchant, Y. Libsekal, T. Ghirmai and D. Zinner. 2006. A proboscidean from the late Oligocene of Eritrea, a ‘‘missing link’’ between early Elephantiformes and Elephantimorpha, and biogeographic implications. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(46)