Notiomastodon platensis was a gomphothere – a relative of modern elephants – that lived across much of what is now South America from the mid-Pleistocene to the early Holocene, between about 800,000 and 10,000 years ago.
Similar in size to an Asian elephant, it stood around 2.5m tall at the shoulder (~8'2") with a domed head and thick tusks that varied in length and curvature between different individuals. It had a stockier build than modern elephants with thicker and slightly shorter limbs, and fossilized footprints suggest it had five nails on its front feet and at least three on the hind feet.
Isotope analysis and wear analysis of Notiomastodon's teeth suggest it was a generalist browsing herbivore, with different populations adapting their dietary habits to local conditions. As one of the largest South American herbivores of its time it was probably an important seed disperser for plants such as bamboo and palms – and some of the plants that once depended on it may now be "evolutionary anachronisms".
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References:
Aramayo, Silvia A., et al. "Pehuen Co: Updated taxonomic review of a late Pleistocene ichnological site in Argentina." Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 439 (2015): 144-165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.07.006
Asevedo, Lidiane, et al. "Ancient diet of the Pleistocene gomphothere Notiomastodon platensis (Mammalia, Proboscidea, Gomphotheriidae) from lowland mid-latitudes of South America: Stereomicrowear and tooth calculus analyses combined." Quaternary International 255 (2012): 42-52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.08.037
González-Guarda, Erwin, et al. "Fossil evidence of proboscidean frugivory and its lasting impact on South American ecosystems." Nature Ecology & Evolution (2025): 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02713-8
Larramendi, Asier. "Shoulder height, body mass, and shape of proboscideans." Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 61.3 (2015): 537-574. https://www.app.pan.pl/article/item/app001362014.html
Mothé, Dimila, et al. "Doing the Time Warp again: Electron Spin Resonance dating reveals oldest numeric age for Notiomastodon platensis Ameghino, 1888 (Mammalia, Proboscidea)." Geobios (2025). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geobios.2024.11.008
Wikipedia contributors. “Notiomastodon” Wikipedia, 12 Jul. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notiomastodon
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Scientists in Mississippi announced a major fossil discovery in the state!
According to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), the agency’s Mississippi State Geological Survey scientists received a message about a the discovery made by Eddie Templeton, an avid artifact and fossil collector. Templeton was exploring in rural Madison County earlier this month when he stumbled upon what appeared to be a portion of an ice-age elephant tusk exposed in a steep embankment.
Mississippi was home to three Proboscideans during the last ice age: Mastodon, Gomphothere, and the Columbian mammoth. All three possessed ivory tusks.
Officials said Mastodons are the most common Proboscidean finds in Mississippi. Mammoths, which were related to modern elephants, are far less common finds in Mississippi.
When Templeton and the State Survey paleontological team arrived to the fossil site, they found the fossil tusk in amazing condition and was only partially exposed just above the water under a bluff in the alluvium of a small drainage. It was suspected based on the strong curvature of the massive tusk that they were dealing with a Columbian mammoth and not that of the more common mastodon. Officials said this would be the first of its kind for the area.
The team was able to carefully remove the clayey sand from around the tusk to expose the seven-foot long fossil. The tusk had been deposited entirely intact. MDEQ officials said most fossil tusk ivory found around the state are just fragments and most are likely to be attributable to the more common mastodon.
The fossil was taken to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science in Jackson for further curation and careful study. It was confirmed by a museum paleontologist as belonging to a mammoth.
Officials said the discovery offers a rare window into the Columbian mammoths that once roamed Madison County along the Jackson Prairie of central Mississippi. Columbian mammoths were much larger than the infamous woolly mammoth that roamed the colder, more northern regions of North America. They grew up to 15 feet at the shoulder and could weigh more than 10 tons.
This extinct species of proboscidean lived in what is now the Great Plains region of the United States during the Miocene epoch and was a member of the gomphothere family. However, while most gomphotheres had four tusks, two upper tusks and two lower ones, Eubelodon and its close relatives, Gnathabelodon and Choerolophodon, actually lost their lower tusks and only had the two upper tusks. Like modern elephants, these tusks were actually very specialized teeth and were likely used for foraging by stripping the bark from trees and breaking off branches, as well as for combat. In addition to these tusks, Eubelodon would have likely had a long trunk, like modern elephants, and would have used it to reach food that would have been otherwise out of its reach.
Photo credit: James St. John
Their name means "true arrow tooth" since their teeth were kind of pointed and somewhat resemble arrowheads. This type of tooth is better suited for "shearing" through tough vegetation since gomphotheres were browsers, while mammoths were primarily grazers that had flat teeth for grinding up grass. I couldn't find a lot of specifics about this particular species of gomphothere, probably because, like many other prehistoric species, it has a complicated history of being considered valid, then invalid, then valid again. It was first described in 1914, but just four years later, in 1918, it would be considered invalid, and its fossils were reclassified as belonging to Trilophodon. However, Trilophodon is also an invalid genus, and so the fossils would be reclassified again in 1973, but to Gomphotherium this time. I think 1997 is when Eubelodon was finally considered to be valid again, but all the sources I found on it were weirdly worded, so sorry if that's wrong.
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A fossilized tooth of a Gomphotherium angustidens from Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This Miocene aged proboscidean had two pairs of straight tusks and teeth with bumpy cusps similar to those of mastodon. Translating to "welded beast", Gomphotherium was a basal elephant-like animal or gomphothere that lived across many continents in Europe, North America, and Asia.
