Archaeobelodon filholi

This skeleton was reconstructed from the fossil remains of at least three individuals discovered between 1830 and 1850 by Charles Laurillard within the same deposit located at Sansan in the Gers. The skull, mandible, shoulder blade, pelvis, several long bones and a few foot bones belong to the same animal. Its proportions distinguish it from elephants: it is stockier in build, shorter in height and more elongated.

This old mount is the first mastodon to be reconstructed in Europe. It features a number of errors: the tusks should be more deeply set in the bones of the face and the lower incisors have been inverted.

Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) grouped the proboscideans that resemble elephants, but that are not true elephants, together under the term mastodonts (literally “breast-tooth”). Here they are represented by three species: Archaeobelodon filholi which belongs to the amebelodontids (mastodons with shovel-shaped lower incisors), Gomphotherium angustidens and Cuvieronius hyodon which belong to the gomphotheres, the closest ancestors of elephants.