Deinotherium giganteum Kaup, 1829

Geraads, Denis, Kaya, Tanju & Mayda, Serdar, 2005, Late Miocene large mammals from Yulafli, Thrace region, Turkey, and their biogeographic implications, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 50 (3), pp. 523-544 : 526

Deinotherium giganteum Kaup, 1829

Material from Yulafl I.—TTMEU−CY−30, right P4 ( Fig. 4G); TTMEU−CY−31, left M3; TTMEU−CY−109, incomplete toothless dentary.

Description.—Both teeth are large (P4: 71 × 90; M3: 94 × w1 =105 × w2 = 91). The P4 is rectangular in outline, being wider than long ( Fig. 4G). The protoloph is complete and united with the paracone, but the metaloph is only a half−loph. The ectoloph is well developed, with a labial ectoflexus. The mesostyle ( Harris 1973: fig. 7) is low and located on the mesio−lingual surface of the hypocone. The median valley is wide and opens lingually only. The anterior cingulum forms a ridge along the mesial side, but the distal cingulum is weaker, and there is no labial cingulum. There are three roots; two of them are located under the lophs, the third one is lingual.

The M3 is rectangular in outline, with the protoloph wider than the metaloph. The median valley opens lingually and labially. The anterior cingulum forms a ridge along the anterior side, but the posterior cingulum is weak. There are no lingual or labial cingula, except a small labial cingulum at the opening of the median valley. There are three roots. The anterior root corresponds to the mesio−lingual part of the protoloph, the second root is along the metaloph, and the third root extends along the labial side. The lingual ornamentation of the protoloph is stronger than the labial one. The postmetaloph ornamentation is weak, and forms a small tubercle. The enamel of the tooth is finely wrinkled along the lophs and the lingual and labial surfaces.

The dentary TTMEU−CY−109 has lost its teeth, and the rostral part of the tusk sheaths is also broken away, revealing two parallel alveoli, only slightly decreasing in diameter ventrally, and separated by a narrow septum. The maximum width across the sheaths is 240 mm.

Comparisons.—In Eurasia, deinotheres are known in early Miocene to middle Pliocene localities ( Bergounioux and Crouzel 1962; Tobien 1988; Huttunen 2002a), but their taxonomy has long been debated. In this study, following Harris (1973), the name Deinotherium is used for a large−sized deinotheres, which have been recorded from many localities in Europe (review in Huttunen 2002a). In Turkey, it is known from Tire ( Ozansoy 1961), Paşalar ( Tobien 1990), Kayadibi ( Gaziry 1976), Çandir ( Gaziry 1976; Geraads and Güleç 2003), Sinap ( Sanders 2003), Küçükçekmece ( Malik and Nafiz 1933), and Düzyayla ( Kaya and Forstén 1999).

The large−size, the presence of the mesostyle, and the reduced postmetaloph ornamentation are diagnostic characters for Deinotherium that distinguish it from Prodeinotherium ( Harris 1973) . By the presence of a strong anterior cingulum, of a mesostyle, and of incomplete lophs, the P4 from Yulafli resembles those of D. giganteum from various localities in Austria described by Huttunen (2002b). There is a clear general trend for size increase in Deinotherium in the Miocene; e.g., the teeth from Yulafli are much larger than those of Prodeinotherium , and also than those of D. aff. levius from the middle Miocene of Paşalar ( Tobien 1990) and than the unpublished teeth of P. bavaricum from the middle Miocene of Tire ( Figs. 5 , 6 ). However, late Miocene forms exhibit a great size−range not obviously linked with age or geography. The teeth from Yulafli are larger than those of D. giganteum from many European sites, and close to the maximum recorded size for specimens from Vallesian sites such as Montredon, Mannersdorf, Kohfidisch, Eppelsheim or from some Hungarian finds ( Gräf 1957; Tobien 1988; Huttunen 2002b; Mazo and Montoya 2003), but they are only slightly smaller than specimens referred to D. gigantissimum , so that it is hard to draw biochronological conclusions from them.

Figures

Fig. 5. Length versus width plot of Deinotherium P4s.

Fig. 6. Length versus width plot of Deinotherium M3s.