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R. Soc. B."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,13]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Africa has played a pivotal role in the evolution of early proboscideans (elephants and their extinct relatives), yet vast temporal and geographical zones remain uncharted on the continent. A long hiatus encompassing most of the Eocene (Ypresian to the Early Priabonian, around 13 Myr timespan) considerably hampers our understanding of the early evolutionary history of the group. It is notably the case with the origin of its most successful members, the Elephantiformes, i.e. all elephant-like proboscideans most closely related to modern elephants. Here, we describe a proboscidean lower molar discovered in Lutetian phosphate deposits from Togo, and name a new genus and species,<jats:italic>Dagbatitherium tassyi<\/jats:italic>. We show that<jats:italic>Dagbatitherium<\/jats:italic>displays several elephantiform dental characteristics such as a three-layered Schmelzmuster, the presence of a mesoconid, transversely enlarged buccal cusps and the individualization of a third lophid closely appressed to a minute distal cingulid.<jats:italic>Dagbatitherium<\/jats:italic>represents a stem Elephantiformes, pushing back the origin of the group by about 10 Myr, i.e. a third of its currently known evolutionary history. More importantly,<jats:italic>Dagbatitherium<\/jats:italic>potentially unlocks the puzzle of the origin of the unique elephantiform tooth crown organization by bridging a critical temporal and morphological gap between early bunodont incipiently bilophodont proboscidean taxa and more derived elephantiforms.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1098\/rspb.2021.1439","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,13]],"date-time":"2021-10-13T05:46:58Z","timestamp":1634104018000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1098\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["New Middle Eocene proboscidean from Togo illuminates the early evolution of the elephantiform-like dental pattern"],"prefix":"10.1098","volume":"288","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8701-5421","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Lionel","family":"Hautier","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, Universit\u00e9 Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Cc 064, place Eug\u00e8ne Bataillon, Montpellier Cedex 5 34095, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rodolphe","family":"Tabuce","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, Universit\u00e9 Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Cc 064, place Eug\u00e8ne Bataillon, Montpellier Cedex 5 34095, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Micka\u00ebl J.","family":"Mourlam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, Universit\u00e9 Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Cc 064, place Eug\u00e8ne Bataillon, Montpellier Cedex 5 34095, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Koffi Evenyon","family":"Kassegne","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"D\u00e9partement de G\u00e9ologie, Facult\u00e9 des Sciences, Universit\u00e9 de Lom\u00e9, Lom\u00e9 B.P. 1515, Togo"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yawovi Zikpi","family":"Amoudji","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"D\u00e9partement de G\u00e9ologie, Facult\u00e9 des Sciences, Universit\u00e9 de Lom\u00e9, Lom\u00e9 B.P. 1515, Togo"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ma\u00ebva","family":"Orliac","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, Universit\u00e9 Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Cc 064, place Eug\u00e8ne Bataillon, Montpellier Cedex 5 34095, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric","family":"Quill\u00e9v\u00e9r\u00e9","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Univ Lyon, Universit\u00e9 Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon, CNRS, UMR 5276 LGL-TPE, Villeurbanne 69622, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anne-Lise","family":"Charruault","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, Universit\u00e9 Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Cc 064, place Eug\u00e8ne Bataillon, Montpellier Cedex 5 34095, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ampah Kodjo Christophe","family":"Johnson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"D\u00e9partement de G\u00e9ologie, Facult\u00e9 des Sciences, Universit\u00e9 de Lom\u00e9, Lom\u00e9 B.P. 1515, Togo"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3363-6972","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Guillaume","family":"Guinot","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, Universit\u00e9 Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Cc 064, place Eug\u00e8ne Bataillon, Montpellier Cedex 5 34095, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"175","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_5_2_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1525\/california\/9780520257214.003.0015"},{"key":"e_1_3_5_3_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/bies.200900053"},{"key":"e_1_3_5_4_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0900251106"},{"key":"e_1_3_5_5_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0016-6995(98)80041-7"},{"key":"e_1_3_5_6_2","first-page":"239","article-title":"Nouvelles donn\u00e9es sur Phosphatherium escuilliei (Mammalia, Proboscidea) de l\u2019\u00c9oc\u00e8ne inf\u00e9rieur du Maroc, apports \u00e0 la phylog\u00e9nie des Proboscidea et des ongul\u00e9s lophodontes","volume":"27","author":"Gheerbrant E","year":"2005","unstructured":"Gheerbrant E, Sudre J, Tassy P, Amaghzaz M, Bouya B, Iaroch\u00e8ne M. 2005 Nouvelles donn\u00e9es sur Phosphatherium escuilliei (Mammalia, Proboscidea) de l\u2019\u00c9oc\u00e8ne inf\u00e9rieur du Maroc, apports \u00e0 la phylog\u00e9nie des Proboscidea et des ongul\u00e9s lophodontes. 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