!#44# Review of the Safari Prehistoric Life Amebelodon Model

!±8± Review of the Safari Prehistoric Life Amebelodon Model

Safari Prehistoric Life Amebelodon Model

Safari, the model manufacturers based in the United States, may be well known for their dinosaur models, the Carnegie Collectibles series for example, but they also manufacture a range of prehistoric mammal models. Under the series title "Prehistoric Life", Safari offer a range of prehistoric mammals. There are the usual models that would be expected from a prehistoric mammal model series, a Smilodon (Sabre Tooth Cat), a Megatherium (Giant Sloth) and a Woolly Mammoth. However, another elephant model is included in this set - Amebelodon.

Amebelodon was a member of the Gomphotheriidae (primitive elephants), although we are familiar with the African and Indian elephants of today, these extant species are not representative of the entire elephant family, as these herbivores were once widespread with various genera to be found in Europe and the Americas as well as Africa and Asia. In contrast to today's elephants, Amebelodon had two pairs of tusks, a set of pointed tusks in the upper jaw and a bizarre pair of shovel-like tusks projecting from the lower jaws. It is from these tusks located in the jaws that Amebelodon gets its name "shovel-dart tooth".

Fossils of this type of elephant are associated with Upper Miocene deposits and date from between 9 million and 6 million years ago. Perhaps the best studied species, and the species upon which we think the Safari model is based is Amebelodon fricki,an elephant whose fossils have been found in the United States (Nebraska and Kansas). Other members of the Amebelodon genus are known to have lived in Europe, Africa and Asia.

Amebelodon fricki - A Late Miocene Prehistoric Elephant

A. fricki was typical of the Amebelodont genus. Mature males stood approximately three metres high at the shoulders, and could grow to lengths in excess of 5 metres. Although the lack of a complete fossil skeleton makes calculating precise body mass difficult it has been estimated that Amebelodon fricki probably weighed approximately 3 tonnes, making it about the same size as a modern bull Indian elephant. This particular species was named and described in 1927, by the eminent American scientist and academic Erwin Hinckley Barbour.

Barbour took a keen interest in the palaeontological discoveries of North America and it was the discovery of some partial skull material in Nebraska that enabled him to prepare a paper on this prehistoric mammal. The skull remnants contained fossils of the tusks and it was from these that Barbour was able to conduct a formal scientific description. Tusks of prehistoric elephants tend to preserve quite well. They are formed from the same substance that our own teeth are made from - enamel. Under the right conditions and circumstances enamel can readily permineralise and become preserved as fossil material.

The tusks in the lower jaw are extremely distinctive, they do, as the name suggests resemble a workman's shovel. To point out this similarity it was quite common for scientific papers on Amebelodon published in the 1930s to contain pictures of various spades and shovels next to the fossilised lower jaw and its tusks so that readers could make their own comparison.

It is likely these modified tusks were used in feeding. It is known that Amebelodonts ranged widely and lived in a variety of habitats from marshy areas, woodland, forested regions and more open areas such as grassland plains. These large animals were probably not fussy eaters and used their tusks in various ways, perhaps to help "shovel" out water plants from lake and pond margins, to scratching off the bark of trees to using them to dig in the ground for tubers and roots.

Amebelodon - Safari Prehistoric Life Model

The Amebelodon model, from Safari is a welcome member of their Prehistoric Life model range. It measures a little over 17 centimetres long and stands approximately 8 centimetres high at the shoulder. The body is painted in a dull grey, resembling the colour of African elephants of the plains and grasslands of Tanzania, Botswana and Kenya today. The skin tone on the body is very finely detailed and the cross-hatched markings on the back and on the flanks give the model a very realistic look. Muscle tone in the shoulder is well defined, but no hump is depicted at the back of the neck. Scientists believe that some types of primitive elephant stored fat reserves in a special gland situated over the shoulders and neck. Although traces of such an organ in most prehistoric elephants is hard to confirm due to the paucity of the fossil record, Amebelodonts may have evolved such a organ to help them survive long periods when plant food was particularly scarce.

The model is very well painted with the eyes and features of the broad trunk shown in great detail. The model is posed with the trunk raised and the mouth open, revealing the bizarre shovel shaped lower tusks in all their glory. The tusks themselves have a realistic yellowish hue. The feet show the thick pads spreading out to take the weight of this animal as it walked and the model has the appearance of being animated, as if the animal was captured in motion, perhaps walking carefully over some soft, muddy ground.

To complete the model, the short tail has a tuft of black hair at the very end. As far as we know, no evidence of what the tail of Amebelodon fricki has been preserved, the tail is simply modelled on the tail of a modern extant African elephant. It is thought that these animals had relatively short ears. There would have been no need to evolve large ears to help achieve heat loss and cool down in the temperature habitats where Amebelodonts were believed to live. This is the reason for the disproportionately small ears on the Safari model.

All in all this is a highly attractive prehistoric animal model, one that represents a more unusual member of the elephant family and it is very pleasing to see it being retained in the Safari Prehistoric Life model series.