FOSSILS SPECIMEN: PROBOSCIDS

Fossils are defined as any evidence of prehistoric life. There are two types of fossils: Body Fossils include remains of skeletal bones, shell, carapace, test, and teeth. Trace Fossils are clues the organism existed such as foot prints, tracks, burrows and coprolites (fossil dung).

The term Proboscidea has Greek origins in reference to the proboscis, being an elongated appendage from the head of an animal. The earliest and smallest members of Proboscideans first appeared in the fossil record during the Paleocene Epoch some 60 million years ago in Africa. To see my Proboscidea models click here.

Kingdom: Animalia – Phylum: Chordata – Class: Mammalia – Order: Proboscidea

(elephants, mammoths and mastodon)

Middle Paleocene to Holocene

Mammoth

Early Pliocene to Late Holocene

Mammoth Tooth Slices

Mammuthus columbi

(Columbian Mammoth)

Pleistocene

Hawthorn Formation, River in South Carolina, United States, North America

Mammal tooth fragment

Mammuthus columbi

(Columbian Mammoth)

Pliestocene

Texas Gulf Coast, Unted States

Mastodon

Early Pliocene to Late Pleistocene

Mastodon Fibula

Pleistocene

Galveston, Texas, North America

Pygmy Mastodont Tooth (Cast)

Pleistocene

North America