stegodon

[ steg-uh-don ]

noun

1. any extinct elephantlike mammal of the genus Stegodon, from the late Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs, usually considered to be directly ancestral to the modern elephant.

stegodon

/ ˈstɛɡəˌdɒnt; ˈstɛɡəˌdɒn /

noun

1. any proboscidean mammal of the genus Stegodon, of Pliocene to Pleistocene times, similar to the mastodons

Word History and Origins

Origin of stegodon¹

< New Latin, equivalent to Greek stego- stego- + -odōn toothed; -odont

Word History and Origins

Origin of stegodon¹

C19: New Latin (literally: ridge-toothed), from Greek stegos roof, from stegein to cover + odōn tooth

Example Sentences

In 2008 and 2010, Ciochon’s team re-excavated the site, turning up 867 new fossils belonging to deer, wild cattle, and an extinct, elephantlike animal called a stegodon.

From Science Magazine

For instance, researchers first estimated the age of the elephant-like Stegodon trigonocephalus not by dating the fossils themselves, but by dating fossils from other animals collected from deposits more than 100 kilometres away6.

From Nature

Morwood and colleagues posited that Flores's ancient settlers underwent island dwarfing, in parallel with other colonizing mammals such as Stegodon.

From Nature

Stone tools associated with Stegodon bones in Liang Bua suggested that H. floresiensis could have hunted and butchered these animals.

From Nature

It soon yielded promising finds: stone tools that seemed to be more than 10,000 years old, and fossils of a pygmy form of the extinct elephant-like Stegodon.

From Nature