List of gomphothere fossils in South America

This is a list of gomphothere fossils found in South America. Gomphotheres were elephant-like mammals that lived from the Middle Miocene (approximately 12 million years ago) to the Holocene (6000 years BP).

The following species have been described in twentieth and twenty-first century paleontological literature about South America. An alternative proposal is considered within the scientific community,   listed below.

Modern classification
 * Cuvieronius (Osborn 1923)
 * C. hyodon (Fischer 1814) (type)
 * Notiomastodon (Cabrera 1929)
 * N. platensis (Mothé et al. 2012) (type)

Former classification
Original classification
 * Gomphotheriidae
 * Cuvieroniinae
 * Cuvieronius (Osborn 1923)
 * C. arellanoi (Ochoterena & Silva 1970)
 * C. hyodon (=C. humboldti) (Fischer 1814) (type)
 * C. priestleyi (Hay & Cook 1930)
 * C. tarijensis (Cabrera 1929)
 * C. tropicus (Cope 1884) (=C. oligobunis (Cope 1893))
 * Haplomastodon (Hoffstetter 1950)
 * H. chimborazi (Proaño 1922)
 * H. guayasensis (Hoffstetter 1952)
 * H. waringi (Holland 1920) (type)
 * Notiomastodon (Cabrera 1929)
 * N. ornatus (=S. platensis)
 * N. platensis (Mothé et al. 2012) (type)
 * N. vidali (Castellanos 1948)
 * Stegomastodon (Pohlig 1912)
 * S. mirificus (Leidy 1858) (= "S. successor, S. arizonae, S. texanus") (type)
 * S. platensis (Ameghino 1888)
 * S. primitivus (Osborn 1936) (=S. rexroadensis)
 * S. superbus (Casamiguela et al. 1996)
 * S. waringi (Hoffstetter 1950)

Gomphothere fossil finds
Formations are ordered according to their youngest age

Proposed reclassification
Some authors, Lucas, Mothé, Avilla et al., propose a reclassification of the South American gomphotheres as follows:
 * Stegomastodon (Pohlig, 1912) is an exclusively North American genus
 * Haplomastodon (Hoffstetter 1950) is a South American genus, but synonymous with Notiomastodon (Cabrera 1929)
 * as Notiomastodon was defined earlier, all Haplomastodon species should be considered part of Notiomastodon
 * all formerly described species as Stegomastodon sp., Haplomastodon sp. and Notiomastodon sp. belong to a single species; Notiomastodon platensis
 * Cuvieronius is the only remaining South American genus outside of Notiomastodon, containing the single local species C. hyodon

Other researchers as Labarca, Prado and Alberdi agree with the placement of species into Notiomastodon, but reject the idea of a single species. They continue to use Stegomastodon waringi for South American gomphotheres from Chile.

Evolution

 * Lucas (2010, 2013) proposes that Notiomastodon evolved from Cuvieronius inside South America
 * Mothé et al. (2012, 2015, 2016) propose that Notiomastodon and Cuvieronius reached South America in two separate migration waves