{{short description|Family of extinct elephant-like mammals}} {{pp-pc1}} {{Distinguish|text=the extinct metatherian family Stagodontidae}} {{Automatic taxobox | fossil_range = {{Fossil range|Miocene|Late Pleistocene}} | image2 = Em - Stegolophodon cautleyi - 1.jpg | image2_caption = ''Stegolophodon cautleyi'' | image = Giant Mastodon Skeleton (10096970493).jpg | image_caption = ''Stegodon hunghoensis'' | taxon = Stegodontidae | authority = Osborn, 1918 | subdivision_ranks = Genera | subdivision = * †''Stegodon'' * †''Stegolophodon'' }}
'''Stegodontidae''' (from the Ancient Greek στέγω (''stégō''), meaning "to cover", and ὀδούς (''odoús''), meaning "tooth", named for the distinctive ridges on the animal's molars){{source needed|reason=Etymology can not be found in first two sources. Please provide a source.|date=November 2025}} is an extinct family of proboscideans from Africa and Asia (with a single occurrence in Europe) from the Early Miocene (at least 17.3 million years ago<ref name=":0" />) to the Late Pleistocene.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Turvey, Samuel T. |author2=Tong, Haowen |author3=Stuart, Anthony J. |author4=Lister, Adrian M. |year=2013 |title=Holocene survival of Late Pleistocene megafauna in China: A critical review of the evidence |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=76 |pages=156–166 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.06.030 |bibcode=2013QSRv...76..156T}}</ref> It contains two genera, the earlier ''Stegolophodon'', known from the Miocene of Asia and the later ''Stegodon,'' from the Late Miocene to Late Pleistocene of Africa and Asia (with a single occurrence in Greece) which is thought to have evolved from the former. The group is noted for their plate-like lophs on their teeth, which are similar to elephants and different from those of other extinct proboscideans like gomphotheres and mammutids, with both groups having a proal jaw movement utilizing forward strokes of the lower jaw. These similarities with modern elephants were probably convergently evolved.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Saegusa |first=Haruo |date=March 2020 |title=Stegodontidae and Anancus: Keys to understanding dental evolution in Elephantidae |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379119302665 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=231 |article-number=106176 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106176|bibcode=2020QSRv..23106176S |s2cid=214094348 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Like elephantids, stegodontids are thought to have evolved from gomphothere ancestors.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal |last1=Wu |first1=Yan |last2=Deng |first2=Tao |last3=Hu |first3=Yaowu |last4=Ma |first4=Jiao |last5=Zhou |first5=Xinying |last6=Mao |first6=Limi |last7=Zhang |first7=Hanwen |last8=Ye |first8=Jie |last9=Wang |first9=Shi-Qi |date=2018-05-16 |title=A grazing Gomphotherium in Middle Miocene Central Asia, 10 million years prior to the origin of the Elephantidae |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=8 |issue=1 |page=7640 |bibcode=2018NatSR...8.7640W |doi=10.1038/s41598-018-25909-4 |issn=2045-2322 |pmc=5956065 |pmid=29769581}}</ref>
==Taxonomy== Stegodontidae was named by Osborn (1918). It was assigned to Mammutoidea by Carroll (1988); to Elephantoidea by Lambert and Shoshani (1998); and to Elephantoidea by Shoshani et al. (2006).<ref>R. L. Carroll. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York 1-698</ref><ref>J. Shoshani, R. C. Walter, M. Abraha, S. Berhe, P. Tassy, W. J. Sanders, G. H. Marchant, Y. Libsekal, T. Ghirmai and D. Zinner. 2006. A proboscidean from the late Oligocene of Eritrea, a "missing link" between early Elephantiformes and Elephantimorpha, and biogeographic implications. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(46)</ref> While ''Stegodon'' was historically considered an elephant, this is now largely rejected, with the similarities considered to be convergent.<ref name=":0" /> Stegodontidae has often been suggested to be closely related the "tetralophodont gomphotheres" and Elephantidae within Elephantimorpha regardless, though the position of Stegodontidae within Elephantimorpha is uncertain and possibly considerably more basal (early diverging),<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last1=Tassy |first1=Pascal |url=https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/11911/foot-himalayas |title=At the Foot of the Himalayas: Paleontology and Ecosystem Dynamics of the Siwalik Record |last2=Sanders |first2=William J. |date=2025 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=978-1-4214-5027-8 |editor-last=Badgley |editor-first=Catherine |pages=254–255 |language=en |chapter=Siwalik Proboscidea |editor-last2=Morgan |editor-first2=Michèle E. |editor-last3=Pilbeam |editor-first3=David}}</ref> with a 2025 study recovering with weak support that they were most closely related to Mammutidae (true mastodons).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wang |first=Shi-Qi |last2=Li |first2=Chunxiao |last3=Zhang |first3=Xiaoxiao |last4=Quan |first4=Yongtao |date=2025-09-01 |title=A new genus of amebelodonts from the Miocene of China and a re-examination of the phylogeny of the Amebelodontidae |url=https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/doi/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf116/8250785 |journal=Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society |language=en |volume=205 |issue=1 |doi=10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf116 |issn=0024-4082|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It has been suggested that the lineage of ''Stegolophodon'' emerged from that of ''"Gomphotherium" annectens.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wang |first=Shi-Qi |last2=Li |first2=Chunxiao |last3=Zhang |first3=Xiaoxiao |last4=Quan |first4=Yongtao |date=2025-09-01 |title=A new genus of amebelodonts from the Miocene of China and a re-examination of the phylogeny of the Amebelodontidae |url=https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/doi/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf116/8250785 |journal=Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society |language=en |volume=205 |issue=1 |doi=10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf116 |issn=0024-4082|url-access=subscription }}</ref>''<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wang |first=Shi-Qi |last2=Li |first2=Chunxiao |last3=Li |first3=Yan |last4=Zhang |first4=Xiaoxiao |date=2023-03-01 |title=Gomphotheres from Linxia Basin, China, and their significance in biostratigraphy, biochronology, and paleozoogeography |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0031018223000238 |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |language=en |volume=613 |article-number=111405 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2023.111405|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Proboscidea Genera}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q2196033}}
Category:Stegodontidae Category:Miocene proboscideans Category:Pleistocene proboscideans Category:Pliocene proboscideans Category:Cenozoic mammals of Africa Category:Cenozoic mammals of Asia Category:Pleistocene extinctions Category:Miocene first appearances Category:Prehistoric mammal families