Stegodon ("roofed tooth" from the Ancient Greek words , , 'to cover', + , , 'tooth' because of the distinctive ridges on the animal's molars) is an extinct genus of proboscidean, related to elephants. It was originally assigned to the family Elephantidae along with modern elephants but is now placed in the extinct family Stegodontidae. Like elephants, Stegodon had teeth with plate-like lophs that are different from those of more primitive proboscideans like gomphotheres and mastodons. The oldest fossils of the genus are found in Late Miocene strata in Asia, likely originating from the more archaic Stegolophodon, shortly afterwards migrating into Africa. While the genus became extinct in Africa during the Pliocene, Stegodon remained widespread in Asia until the end of the Pleistocene. Morphology Size Some species of Stegodon were amongst the largest proboscideans. S. zdanskyi is known from an old male (50-plus years old) from the Yellow River that is tall and would have weighed approximately in life. It had a humerus long, a femur long, and a pelvis wide. Size varies across species, large stegodonts are comparable in size with modern elephants. Aside from S. zdanskyi, species like S. ganesha, S. miensis, S. orientalis, S. elephantoides and S. kaisensis are also relatively large bodied. Large stegodonts usually occur in the mainland. There also exist medium sized stegodonts present in large islands like those of Japan and Java. These stegodonts may include: S. aurorae, S. trigonocephalus, S. insignis and S. florensis florensis. Stegodonts that live in smaller islands usually result in further dwarfism. Dwarfism S. florensis insularis is an extinct subspecies of Stegodon endemic to the island of Flores, Indonesia, and an example of insular dwarfism. The direct ancestor of S. florensis insularis is the larger-bodied S. florensis florensis, from Early Pleistocene and early Middle Pleistocene sites on Flores. Remains of S. florensis insularis are known from the cave of Liang Bua. Similar to modern-day elephants, stegodonts were likely good swimmers, as their fossils are frequently encountered on Asian islands (such as Sulawesi, Flores, Timor, Sumba in Indonesia; Luzon and Mindanao in the Philippines; Taiwan; and Japan), all locations not connected by land bridges with the Asian continent even during periods of low sea level (during the cold phases of the Pleistocene). A general evolutionary trend in large mammals on islands is island dwarfing. Many among the dwarfed species of Stegodonts came from the lineage of S. ganesha, S.