Platybelodon Molar Tooth Replica
$65.00
Wear patterns on the teeth suggest that it used its lower tusks to strip bark from trees, and may have used the sharp incisors that formed the edge of the “shovel”, grasping branches with its trunk and rubbing them against the lower teeth to cut from a tree.
- Description
- Additional information
Description
Platybelodon Molar Tooth Replica measures 7.3 inches. Platybelodon Molar Tooth Replica is museum-quality polyurethane resin cast. Made in USA.
Platybelodon (“flat-spear tusk”) or Platybelodon danovi was a genus of large herbivorous mammals related to the elephant (order Proboscidea). It lived during the middle Miocene Epoch in Africa, Asia and the Caucasus.
Platybelodon was very similar to Amebelodon, another closely related gomphothere genus. Due to the shape of the two lower teeth, like many gomphothere genera (such as Platybelodon, Archaeobelodon, Konobelodon, and Amebelodon) they are popularly known as “shovel tuskers”.
Platybelodon or Platybelodon danovi was previously believed to have fed in the swampy areas of grassy savannas, using its teeth to shovel up aquatic and semi-aquatic vegetation.
Wear patterns on the teeth suggest that it used its lower tusks to strip bark from trees, and may have used the sharp incisors that formed the edge of the “shovel” more like a modern-day scythe, grasping branches with its trunk and rubbing them against the lower teeth to cut it from a tree.
Adult Platybelodon or Platybelodon danovi animals in particular might have eaten coarser vegetation more frequently than juveniles. Their tusks were probably not used to eat as much as they were used for defense.
Scientific Classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Mammalia
- Order: Proboscidea
- Family: †Amebelodontidae
- Subfamily: †Platybelodontinae
- Genus: †Platybelodon Borissiak, 1928
Additional information
| Weight | 4 lbs |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 7.3 in |