Cuvieronius

Cuvieronius Temporal range: Early Pleistocene–Holocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Skull of Cuvieronius hyodon Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris
Life restoration of Cuvieronius hyodon
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Proboscidea
Family:	†Gomphotheriidae
Genus:	†Cuvieronius Osborn, 1923
Species:	†C. hyodon
Binomial name
†Cuvieronius hyodon (Fischer, 1814) (conserved name)
Synonyms
C. hyodon C. arellanoi Ochoterena & Silva-Bárcenas, 1970 C. tarijensis Ficcarelli et al., 1995 C. tropicus(Cope, 1884) C. oligobunis(Cope, 1893) C. priestleyi Hay & Cook, 1930

Cuvieronius is an extinct New World genus of gomphothere which ranged from southern North America to western South America during the Pleistocene epoch. Reaching a shoulder height of 2.3 metres (7.5 ft) and a body mass of 3.5 tonnes (7,700 lb), it was on average shorter but comparable in body mass to an Asian elephant. Cuvieronius inhabited subtropical and tropical latitudes in environments ranging from grasslands to tropical rainforest. Among the last gomphotheres along with the South American Notiomastodon, it became extinct as part of the end Pleistocene-extinction event, approximately 12,000 years ago, along with most other large mammals in the Americas. The extinctions followed the arrival of humans to the Americas, and evidence has been found for human hunting of Cuvieronius, which may have been a factor in its extinction.