Eubelodon is an extinct genus of gomphothere (a family in the order Proboscidea, which also includes modern elephants) which lived in North America during the Miocene Epoch. It contains a single species: Eubelodon morrilli.
Description
Eubelodon is considered to be a trilophodont gomphothere. It has the highly unusual combination of retaining a long lower jaw, but having lost the lower tusks, a combination only shared with fellow North American gomphothere Gnathabelodon and the choerolophodontidChoerolophodon.[1]
Eubelodon was named by Erwin Hinckly Barbour in 1914. It was synonymized subjectively with Trilophodon by Osborn in 1918 and again by Tobien in 1973 with Gomphotherium.[3]
It was assigned to Gomphotheriidae by Erwin Barbour in 1914. It was then assigned to Rhynchotheriinae by McKenna and Bell in 1997,[4] Carroll in 1988, Shoshani and Tassy in 1996, Lambert and Shoshani in 1998, and Shoshani and Tassy in 2005.
Taxonomic position among trilophodont Gomphotheres:[5]
^H. Tobien. 1973. On the Evolution of Mastodonts (Proboscidea, Mammalia); Part 1, The bunodont trilophodont Groups. Notizblatt des Hessischen Landesamtes fuer Bodenforschung zu Wiesbaden 101:202-276.
^M. C. McKenna and S. K. Bell. 1997. Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level 1-640 (John Alroy and Mark Uhen, George Mason University)
