those of elephants. In Bardia National Park in Nepal, a population of Indian elephants, possibly due to inbreeding, exhibits many Stegodon-like morphological features. These primitive features are considered recent mutations rather than atavisms. Fossils of the small, specialized stegodont S. aurorae are found in the Osaka Plain, Japan, and date from around 2 million to 7 million years ago. This species possibly evolved from S. shinshuensis. Phylogeny The following cladogram shows the placement of the genus Stegodon among other proboscideans, based on hyoid characteristics: List of species Stegodon kaisensis Late Miocene – Pliocene, Africa Stegodon zdanskyi Late Miocene – Pliocene, China Stegodon huananensis Early Pleistocene, China Stegodon orientalis Middle – Late Pleistocene, China, Southeast Asia, Japan Stegodon namadicus/S. insignis/S. ganesa Pliocene – Late Pleistocene, India Stegodon miensis Pliocene, Japan Stegodon protoaurorae Late Pliocene – Early Pleistocene, Japan Stegodon aurorae Early Pleistocene – early Middle Pleistocene, Japan Stegodon sondaari Early Pleistocene, Flores Stegodon florensis Middle – Late Pleistocene, Flores Stegodon luzonensis Pleistocene, Philippines Stegodon trigonocephalus Pleistocene, Java Stegodon sompoensis Pleistocene, Sulawesi Stegodon sumbaensis Pleistocene, Sumbawa Stegodon timorensis Pleistocene, Timor An indeterminate Stegodon molar of an uncertain locality and age is known from Greece, representing the only record of the genus in Europe. Extinction Stegodon became extinct in the Indian subcontinent, mainland Southeast Asia and China by the end of the Late Pleistocene epoch, while Asian elephants, which existed in sympatry with Stegodon in these regions, are still extant. The survival of the Asian elephant as opposed to Stegodon has been suggested to be due to its more flexible diet in comparison to Stegodon. A review of 130 papers written about 180 different sites with proboscidean remains in southern China revealed Stegodon to have been more common than Asian elephants; the papers gave many recent radiocarbon dates, the youngest being 2,150 BCE (4,100 BP). However, Turvey et al. (2013) reported that one of the faunal assemblages including supposed fossils of Holocene Stegodon (from Gulin, Sichuan Province) is actually late Pleistocene in age; other supposed fossils of Holocene stegodonts were lost and their age cannot be verified. The authors concluded that the latest confirmed occurrences of Stegodon from China are from the late Pleistocene, and that its Holocene survival cannot be substantiated. References Stegodontidae Miocene proboscideans Miocene mammals of Asia Miocene mammals of Africa Pliocene mammals of Africa Pliocene mammals of Asia Pleistocene mammals of Africa Pleistocene mammals of Asia Pliocene proboscideans Pleistocene