Palaeomastodon

Palaeomastodon Temporal range: Oligocene, 33–27 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
P. beadnelli skull
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Proboscidea
Family:	†Palaeomastodontidae
Genus:	†Palaeomastodon Andrews, 1901
Type species
†Palaeomastodon beadnelli Andrews, 1901
Synonyms[1]
Synonyms of P. beadnelli †P. parvus Andrews, 1906 †P. wintoni Andrews, 1906 †P. intermedius Matsumoto, 1922

Palaeomastodon ("ancient mastodon") is an extinct genus of basal proboscideans from the Oligocene of North Africa. The first specimen discovered was recovered from strata belonging to the Fayum fossil deposits of Egypt. It was described and named in 1901 by Charles Williams Andrews, who named its type species, P. beadnelli, after a colleague. Multiple species have been named since, though have either been reassigned to Phiomia or synonymised with P. beadnelli. Three (possible) unnamed taxa are known from Ethiopia and Libya. All remains are from strata that date to 33–27 million years ago.

Palaeomastodon was fairly large for an early proboscidean. It had an estimated shoulder height of 2.2 m (7 ft 3 in), and a body mass of around 2,500 kg (5,500 lb). Similar to Phiomia, its nasal cavity was retracted and surrounded by strong muscle attachment sites, indicating that it was among the first proboscideans to possess a trunk. Like in modern elephants, the orbits (eye sockets) were positioned further back on the skull, and sat over the molars. The (lower jaw) mandible was very long, with a symphysis whose morphology suggests a long tongue was present. Like many extinct proboscideans, Palaeomastodon had two sets of tusks, one on the upper jaw and one on the lower jaws, formed from the second incisors of the maxilla and mandible respectively.