Stegotetrabelodon

Stegotetrabelodon is an extinct genus of primitive elephantids that lived from the Late Miocene to the Early Pliocene in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Italy. It is the earliest and most primitive member of the elephant family Elephantidae, and it kept ancestral features such as permanent premolar teeth, a long lower jaw and large lower tusks, which are the longest known of any proboscidean. The genus is thought to have evolved from the tetralophodont gomphothere Tetralophodon. Its best known species are S. emiratus from the United Arab Emirates, S. orbus from East Africa and S. syrticus from Libya, and fossil footprints in the United Arab Emirates suggest that these animals lived in herds, as modern elephants do.