Family Gomphotheriidae (Noun)
Meaning
Elephants extinct since the Pleistocene.
Classification
Nouns denoting animals.
Examples
- Gomphotheriidae was a diverse family of extinct proboscideans closely related to modern elephants and mammoths.
- Fossil remains of Gomphotheriidae have been found in many parts of North and South America, as well as in Eurasia and Africa.
- Members of the family Gomphotheriidae varied in size and body shape, with some species being larger than present-day elephants.
- Some species of family Gomphotheriidae had four tusks, with a pair protruding from the upper jaw and a second pair from the lower jaw.
- Gomphotheriidae went extinct at the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, for reasons that are still debated among scientists.