Platybelodon Pronunciation

Fun Facts

• ✓Platybelodon lived from about 16 million years ago all the way to 4.7 million years ago, surviving for over 11 million years across Asia, Africa, and North America.
• ✓For decades scientists thought Platybelodon used its shovel jaw to scoop up aquatic plants from swamps, but more recent wear patterns on the teeth suggest it may have actually used the blade to strip bark off trees like a giant living chisel.
• ✓The first fossils were found in 1927 in the Tchokrak beds of the North Caucasus, and Russian paleontologist Alexey Borissiak formally named the species Platybelodon danovi in 1928, just one year after discovery.
• ✓American paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn named a second species, Platybelodon grangeri, in 1928, the same year Borissiak published his description, making 1928 a banner year for flat-toothed elephant science.
• ✓Platybelodon fossils have been found on four continents including Kenya and the United States, proving this bizarre creature spread across much of the ancient world during the Miocene epoch.