Cuvieronius sp. , Photo: Michael Lahanas
Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Cladus: Sarcopterygii
Cladus: Rhipidistia
Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha
Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes
Cladus: Elpistostegalia
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Cladus: Synapsida
Cladus: Eupelycosauria
Cladus: Sphenacodontia
Cladus: Sphenacodontoidea
Cladus: Therapsida
Cladus: Theriodontia
Cladus: Cynodontia
Cladus: Eucynodontia
Cladus: Probainognathia
Cladus: Prozostrodontia
Cladus: Mammaliaformes
Classis: Mammalia
Subclassis: Trechnotheria
Infraclassis: Zatheria
Supercohors: Theria
Cohors: Eutheria
Magnordo: Epitheria
Superordo: Afrotheria
Cladus: Paenungulata
Cladus: Tethytheria
Ordo: Proboscidea
Subordo: Elephantiformes
Cladus: Elephantimorpha
Cladus: Elephantida
Superfamilia: †Gomphotherioidea
Familia: †Gomphotheriidae
Genus: Cuvieronius
Species C. hyodon - C. oligobunis - C. priestleyi - C. tropicus
Name
Cuvieronius Osborn, 1923
Cuvieronius is an extinct New World genus of gomphothere which ranged from southern North America to western South America during the Pleistocene epoch. Among the last gomphotheres, it became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene, approximately 12,000 years ago, following the arrival of humans to the Americas.
Taxonomy
Gomphothere phylogeny (after Mothé et al. 2016[1])
†Gomphotheriidae (Gomphotheres)
†Gomphotherium
†Gnathabelodon
†Eubelodon
Brevirostrine clade
†Stegomastodon
†Sinomastodon
†Notiomastodon
†Rhynchotherium
†Cuvieronius
The species now known as Cuvieronius hyodon was among the first fossil animals from the New World to be studied. The first remains of this species were recovered from Ecuador by Alexander von Humboldt, at a location the local population referred to as the "Field of Giants".[2] Humboldt recognized that, rather than being bones of giant humans as had been thought by the local population and previous Spanish colonists, they were similar to the giant elephants (Mastodon) being described from Ohio. Humboldt sent teeth that he had collected from Mexico, Ecuador, and Chile to French anatomist Georges Cuvier, who classified the teeth into two species, which he referred to as the "mastodonte des cordilières" and the "mastodonte humboldtien", in an 1806 paper.[3] It was not until 1824 that Cuvier formally named the species. He referred both to the genus Mastodon, calling them M. andium and M. humboldtii.[3]
Unknown to Cuvier, Fischer had, in 1814, already named the two species based on Cuvier's original description, in the new genus Mastotherium as M. hyodon and M. humboldtii. The idea of two distinct species continued to be accepted into the 20th century, usually using Cuvier's names, though Fischer's names were older.[3] In 1923, Henry Fairfield Osborn recognized that these species were distinct from Mastodon, and assigned each to its own new genus, Cuvieronius humboldtii and Cordillerion andium, with the name Cuvieronius in honour of Cuvier. However, by the 1930s, general agreement had shifted to regard both forms as representing a single, geographically widespread species, with Cuvieronius humboldtii considered to be the correct name.[3] During the 1950s, the nomenclature of this species became increasingly tangled, as various scientists regarded the type species of the genus Cuvieronius to be Fischer's first published name Mastotherium hyodon, rather than the originally designated Mastodon humboldtii. This situation went unaddressed until 2009, when Spencer Lucas petitioned the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature to officially change the type species of Cuvieronius to M. hyodon as had been followed for over 50 years by that time, rather than abandoning the well-known Cuvieronius as a synonym.[3] In 2011, Opinion 2276 of the ICZN ruled to conserve the names.
The species level taxonomy of Cuvieronius is confused. historically, several species were recognised, typically C. tropicus and C. hyodon for North and South American remains, respectively, but recent scholarship suggests that there is only a single valid species, C. hyodon.[4][5]
Description
Alive, specimens typically stood about 2.3 m (7 ft 7 in) tall at the shoulder, and weighed about 3.5 tonnes (3.4 long tons; 3.9 short tons).[6] The skull was relatively long and low-vaulted. The upper tusks were straight to slightly curved, and had a spiral shaped-enamel band,[4][7] and reached considerable size, with tusks in the region of 2.2 metres (7.2 ft) in length and weights in excess of 50 kilograms (110 lb).[8] The lower tusks present in more primitive gomphotheres were vestigial in Cuvieronius, being only present in young juveniles, and the lower jaw shortened (brevirostrine).[9] The third molars typically had 4 to 4.5 lophs/lophids, with some specimens having 5 lophs/lophids, with relatively simple crowns.[7]
Molar tooth
Skull in lateral view
Skull in ventral view
Life restoration
Ecology
Cuvieronius is suggested to have been a generalist mixed feeder that consumed a wide range of plant resources, including grasses and browse.[10] Costa Rican C. hyodon were specialised forest inhabitants that primarily fed on C3 plants.[11] In 1982, Daniel H. Janzen and Paul Schultz Martin suggested that the diet of Cuvieronius probably included fruit, and that it was likely an important seed disperser of a variety of Neotropical plants with large fleshy fruits similar to those consumed by large animals in Africa, but which lack effective living native seed dispersers, which they described as "Pleistocene anachronisms".[12]
Evolution
Cuvieronius initially evolved in North America.[13][7] It is considered closely related to, if not derived from, Rhynchotherium, a North American gomphothere genus known from the Late Miocene and Pliocene.[4] The oldest remains attributed to the genus from the Blancan are very fragmentary, and may belong to Rhynchotherium instead. The oldest unambiguous records of the genus in North America date to 1.4 million years ago (Ma).[7] Cuvieronius was extirpated from its northern range in North America over the course of the Irvingtonian after the arrival of mammoths in North America around 1.3 Ma, presumably due to competitive exclusion by mammoths as well as mastodons, with its last records in Florida dating to around 500,000 years ago,[10] but persisted in southern North America (including Mexico) and Central America until the very end of the Pleistocene. During the Great American Interchange, Cuvieronius and a relative, Notiomastodon, dispersed into South America.[14] Cuvieronius apparently reached South America considerably later than Notiomastodon, with the oldest possible date being 760,000 ±30,000 years ago and the oldest confirmed date being 304,000 ±54,000 years ago, and had a much more restricted range, confined mostly to the Andes.[15]
Distribution and habitat
See also: List of gomphothere fossils in South America
In North America, Cuvieronius is known from the Southern United States, including Texas, Florida, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, as well as Mexico. It was also widespread across Central America.[7]
According to a group of Brazilian mammalogists, many sites in South America referred to Cuvieronius actually refer to Notiomastodon, with many previous studies simply labeling fossils one or the other depending on location, with only localities definitely identified as Cuvieronius, the range now extends in the high Andes from Ecuador in the north, to Bolivia in the south, with the localities in the southern Andes in Chile and Argentina now thought to belong to Notiomastodon. The same group maintains that all the South American specimens represent the single species C. hyodon.[15] By the end of the Pleistocene, the northern limit of the range of Cuvieronius was in Mexico and Central Texas.[16] Remains found near the town of Hockley in Texas near Houston, which date to around 24,000 years Before Present (BP), are the most recent findings north of Mexico.[17] Cuvieronius was extirpated from South America by the end of the Late Pleistocene, with its youngest dates on the continent being around 44,000 years ago, before the arrival of people.[15]
Extinction
Curiveronius became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene, approximately 12,000 years ago as part of the Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions, simultaneously alongside most other large animals across the Americas. The extinction of Cuvieronius and other megafauna postdates human arrival in the Americas, which occurred several thousand years prior. At the El Fin del Mundo kill site in Sonora, Mexico, remains of an individual of Cuvierionius and another indeterminate gomphothere were found associated with Clovis spear points, suggesting that hunting may have played a role in its extinction.[18][15] The site was initially suggested to date to 13,390 years Before Present, however this date was later contested, and the site may be younger than this.[19]
References
Mothé, Dimila; Ferretti, Marco P.; Avilla, Leonardo S. (12 January 2016). "The Dance of Tusks: Rediscovery of Lower Incisors in the Pan-American Proboscidean Cuvieronius hyodon Revises Incisor Evolution in Elephantimorpha". PLOS ONE. 11 (1): e0147009. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1147009M. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147009. PMC 4710528. PMID 26756209.
Mayor, A. (2005). Fossil legends of the first Americans. Princeton University Press.
Lucas, S.G. (2009). Case 3479 Cuvieronius Osborn, 1923 (Mammalia, Proboscidea): Proposed conservation. Bull. Zool. Nomen, 66, 1-6.
Lucas, S.P., 2008a. Cuvieronius (Mammalia, Proboscidea) from the Neogene of Florida. In: Lucas, S.P., Morgan, G.S., Spielmann, J.A., Prothero, D.R. (Eds.), Neogene Mammals, vol. 44. N. M. Mus. Nat. Hist. Sci. Bull., pp. 31e38
Morgan, Gary S.; MacFadden, Bruce J.; Martínez, Martín (January 2016). "Quaternary gomphotheres (Mammalia: Proboscidea: Gomphotheriidae) from the continental shelf, Pearl Islands, Panama". Quaternary International. 392: 335–348. Bibcode:2016QuInt.392..335M. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.11.003.
Larramendi, A. (2016). "Shoulder height, body mass and shape of proboscideans" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 61. doi:10.4202/app.00136.2014. S2CID 2092950.
Spencer LG 2022. The last North American gomphotheres. N Mex Mus Nat Hist Sci. 88:45–58.
Larramendi, Asier (2023-12-10). "Estimating tusk masses in proboscideans: a comprehensive analysis and predictive model". Historical Biology: 1–14. doi:10.1080/08912963.2023.2286272. ISSN 0891-2963. S2CID 266182491.
Mothé, Dimila; Ferretti, Marco P.; Avilla, Leonardo S. (12 January 2016). "The Dance of Tusks: Rediscovery of Lower Incisors in the Pan-American Proboscidean Cuvieronius hyodon Revises Incisor Evolution in Elephantimorpha". PLOS ONE. 11 (1): e0147009. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1147009M. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147009. PMC 4710528. PMID 26756209.
Smith, Gregory James; DeSantis, Larisa R. G. (February 2020). "Extinction of North American Cuvieronius (Mammalia: Proboscidea: Gomphotheriidae) driven by dietary resource competition with sympatric mammoths and mastodons". Paleobiology. 46 (1): 41–57. Bibcode:2020Pbio...46...41S. doi:10.1017/pab.2020.7. ISSN 0094-8373.
Adrián Pérez-Crespo, Víctor; Laurito, César A.; Arroyo-Cabrales, Joaquín; Valerio, Ana L.; Cienfuegos-Alvarado, Edith; J. Otero, Francisco (2 April 2024). "Feeding habits of the Gomphothere Cuvieronius hyodon in Costa Rica:A biochemical approach". Historical Biology. 36 (4): 734–741. Bibcode:2024HBio...36..734A. doi:10.1080/08912963.2023.2183856. ISSN 0891-2963. Retrieved 2 April 2024 – via Taylor and Francis.
Janzen, Daniel H.; Martin, Paul S. (January 1982). "Neotropical Anachronisms: The Fruits the Gomphotheres Ate". Science. 215 (4528): 19–27. Bibcode:1982Sci...215...19J. doi:10.1126/science.215.4528.19. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17790450.
Lucas, Spencer G.; Yuan, Wang; Min, Liu (2013-01-01). "The palaeobiogeography of South American gomphotheres". Journal of Palaeogeography. 2 (1): 19–40. Bibcode:2013JPalG...2...19L.
Prado, J. L.; Alberdi, M. T.; Azanza, B.; Sánchez, B.; Frassinetti, D. (2005). "The Pleistocene Gomphotheriidae (Proboscidea) from South America". Quaternary International. 126–128: 21–30. Bibcode:2005QuInt.126...21P. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2004.04.012.
Mothé, D.; dos Santos Avilla, L.; Asevedo, L.; Borges-Silva, L.; Rosas, M.; Labarca-Encina, R.; Souberlich, R.; Soibelzon, E.; Roman-Carrion, J.L.; Ríos, S.D.; Rincon, A.D.; de Oliveira, G.C.; Lopes, R.P. (2017). "Sixty years after 'The mastodonts of Brazil': The state of the art of South American proboscideans (Proboscidea, Gomphotheriidae)". Quaternary International. 443: 52–64. Bibcode:2017QuInt.443...52M. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2016.08.028. hdl:11336/48585.
Graham, R. W. (2001). "Late Quaternary Biogeography and Extinction of Proboscideans in North America" (PDF). In Cavarretta, G.; Gioia, P.; Mussi, M.; Palombo, M. R. (eds.). The World of Elephants (La Terra degli Elefanti) - Proceedings of the 1st International Congress [Atti del 1o Congresso Internazionale], Rome October 16–20, 2001. Rome: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. pp. 707–709. ISBN 88-8080-025-6. Retrieved 2010-02-27.
Lundelius, Ernest L.; Thies, Kenneth J.; Graham, Russell W.; Bell, Christopher J.; Smith, Gregory James; DeSantis, Larisa R.G. (October 2019). "Proboscidea from the Big Cypress Creek fauna, Deweyville Formation, Harris County, Texas". Quaternary International. 530–531: 59–68. Bibcode:2019QuInt.530...59L. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2019.11.018. S2CID 210613711.
Sanchez, Guadalupe; Holliday, Vance T.; Gaines, Edmund P.; Arroyo-Cabrales, Joaquín; Martínez-Tagüeña, Natalia; Kowler, Andrew; Lange, Todd; Hodgins, Gregory W. L.; Mentzer, Susan M. (2014-07-29). "Human (Clovis)–gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.) association ~13,390 calibrated yBP in Sonora, Mexico". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111 (30): 10972–10977. Bibcode:2014PNAS..11110972S. doi:10.1073/pnas.1404546111. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 4121807. PMID 25024193.
Waters, Michael R.; Stafford, Thomas W.; Carlson, David L. (2020-10-23). "The age of Clovis—13,050 to 12,750 cal yr B.P." Science Advances. 6 (43): eaaz0455. Bibcode:2020SciA....6..455W. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaz0455. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 7577710. PMID 33087355.
Bibliography
iconPaleontology portalPrehistoric mammals portal
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