Phanagoroloxodon

Phanagoroloxodon is an extinct genus of elephant. It is known from one species Phanagoroloxodon mammontoides described from a partial skull found on the banks of the Psekups river in the northwestern Caucasus of Russia, of probable Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene age. Phanagoroloxodon has been suggested to share a close common ancestry with Elephas (which contains the living Asian elephant), as well as mammoths (genus Mammuthus), combining characteristics of both genera. Like the Asian elephant, the top of the skull has a groove running along the midline, while the tusks are suggested to be twisted, similar to those of mammoths. A 2020 PhD thesis by Steven Zhang suggested that Elephas recki brumpti from the Pliocene of East Africa should be subsumed into the species Elephas planifrons, known from the Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene of the Indian subcontinent, and that this species should be placed as a second species of Phanagoroloxodon. However, these suggestions were rejected by Sanders (2023).