Gomphotherium

Gomphotherium (; "nail beast" for its double set of straight tusks) is an extinct genus of gomphothere proboscidean from the Neogene of Eurasia, Africa and North America. It is the most diverse genus of gomphothere, with over a dozen valid species. The genus is probably paraphyletic, and ancestral to other gomphothere genera.

==Description== left|thumb|Skeletal restoration of G. productum (left) and G. steinheimense (right) compared to a human Most species of Gomphotherium were similar in size to the Asian elephant, with G. productum (known from a 35-year-old male) measuring tall and weighing . The largest species G. steinheimense, known from a complete 37-year-old male found in Mühldorf, Germany, measured up to tall and weighed . thumb|left|Lower jaws of Gomphotherium angustidens showing elongate mandibular symphysis and lower tusks Gomphotherium, like most basal elephantimorphs, had an elongated lower jaw (with the elongation specifically being the fused front-most part, the mandibular symphysis) which bore tusks. Species of Gomphotherium are defined by their conservative molar morphology, which includes "trilophed intermediate molars, third molars with three to four loph(id)s, and pretrite half-loph(id)s typically with anterior and posterior accessory conules that form trefoil-patterned enamel loops with wear (simple molar crowns with no accessory conules on the posttrite side of the crown)". It has been suggested that like other long-jawed elephantimorphs, that the trunk was relatively short in comparison to living elephants, probably not reaching much further than the tips of tusks on the lower jaw.