The evolution of Eastern European meridionaloid elephants’ dental characteristics

In Late Pliocene – Early Pleistocene of Eastern Europe there was a sequence of replaced each other subspecies of Archidiskodon meridionalis: A. m. rumanus - A. m. gromovi - A. m. meridionalis - A. m. tamanensis, which replaced each other. A specimen of A. m. rumanus from Novotroitsk site was described. Features of stratigraphically attached forms of different age meridionaloid elephants’ samples from the localities of Liventsovka, Georgievsk, Psekups and Sinaya Balka were examined. Dental characteristics of “southern elephants” evolved in a direction with increases of number and lamellar frequency on M2/m2-M3/m3, and increases in length and heights of a crown on DP4/dP4-M1/m1. For large samples, average values of teeth parameters considered together are important.