''Eurybelodon'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

proboscidean The Proboscidea (; , ) are a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family (Elephantidae) and several extinct families. First described by J. Illiger in 1811, it encompasses the elephants and their close relatives. From ...

in the family Amebelodontidae.

Taxonomy

The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes th ...

, a partial upper tusk, was described from Black Butte in western Oregon in 1963. It was originally assigned to the genus '' Platybelodon'', but was reclassified as a distinct genus after a 2016 analysis revealed key morphological differences between it and other amebelodontids. Though it was originally classified in the family

Gomphotheriidae Gomphotheres are any members of the diverse, extinct taxonomic family Gomphotheriidae. Gomphotheres were elephant-like proboscideans, but do not belong to the family Elephantidae. They were widespread across Afro-Eurasia and North America dur ...

with ''Platybelodon'' and '' Amebelodon'', it was moved when the subfamily Amebelodontinae was elevated to a distinct family. The genus name comes from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''eury'', which means broad, and ''belodon'', meaning front tooth. The specific name of the type species is dedicated to Jeheskel Shoshani, who made significant contributions to proboscidean research.

References

Amebelodontidae Miocene proboscideans Miocene mammals of North America Prehistoric placental genera Fossil taxa described in 2016 {{paleo-mammal-stub