Phosphatherium escuillei is a basal proboscidean that lived from the Late Paleocene to the early stages of the Ypresian age until the early Thanetian some 56 million years ago in North Africa. Research has suggested that Phosphatherium existed during the Eocene period. Description P. escuillei possessed rather flat features, centered around a low skull and a long, straight dorsal profile. The skull itself was rather disproportionate, consisting of an elongated cranial region and a rather short rostrum. The sagittal crest, the ridge along the dorsomedian line of its skull, spans across nearly half of the skull itself. The nasal cavity is high and wide, suggesting a large snout in life. One of the main factors of Phosphatherium body is its nontraditional musculoskeletal system. The shape of its head is composed of attributes of a snout, more vividly, turning into a mouth with a rounded jawline. Similar mammals in its order retained a more snout-like nose, which was also a factor that pertained to it having a semiaquatic lifestyle. Furthermore, sexual dimorphism can be noticed on Phosphatherium face by a varying degrees of muscle attachments on its upper jaw.<ref name="gheerbrant2005"/ Phosphatherium lacked a trunk. The tooth rows extend back to roughly 45% of its total skull length. The dental structures suggests that P. escuillei is a heterodont, meaning it possessed more than one type of tooth morphology. This is evident because they possessed more than one type of molar upon fossil examinations. The various dental formations of heterodonts suggest that this animal, unlike later proboscideans, may have been omnivorous. The unique traits of Phosphatherium teeth suggest them to be intraspecific. Some features of P. escuilliei's teeth and jaw structures also show noticeable variation, which is related to sexual dimorphism. This suggests physiological differences existed between males and females, which ultimately suggest behavioral differences.<ref name="gheerbrantetal2005"/ The lower jaw reached a length of 10 cm and had a rather low body. The number of teeth was somewhat reduced compared to older proboscideans. Adult animals had the following dental formula: The tooth row extended over a length of 8 cm, taking up less than half of the skull length. In the upper jaw, the second incisor (I2) was enlarged and conical in shape, but was perpendicular to the bone. In the lower jaw, on the other hand, the first incisor (I1) showed clear enlargements. However, both teeth did not yet form true tusks. The