Mammutidae

Mammutidae is a family of extinct proboscideans that lived between the Miocene to the Pleistocene or Holocene. The family was first described in 1922, classifying fossil specimens of the type genus Mammut, and has since been placed in various arrangements of the order. The name derives from Greek, μαστός "nipple" and οδούς "tooth", as with the genus, to indicate a characteristic that distinguishes them from allied families. The genus Zygolophodon has also been assigned to this family.

Mammutidae classifies taxa that are known by the common name mastodon, a name also used by Georges Cuvier for the genus Mastodon.

Classification

The family diverged from a common ancestor of the Elephantidae, which includes the extinct genus Mammuthus, the mammoths, and extant species of Elephas and Loxodonta, the modern elephants.

The author of Mammutidae also published Gomphotheriidae, which also includes species previously described as Mastodon. The classification of proboscideans is unstable and frequently revised, relationships within the order are controversial, and it is incompletely summarised as:

Elephantimorpha (Proboscidea)
Elephantida
Elephantidae (elephants and mammoths)
Gomphotheriidae (gomphotheres)
Mammutida
Mammutidae (mastodons)
Mammut
Zygolophodon
incertae sedis
Eritreum

Some earlier descriptions of specimens as Mastodon have been transferred to the two genera of Mammutidae.

Translation

The word "Mammutidae" occurs as such in the following languages: English, Spanish.

Translation in German: Echte Mastodonten.