Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville - 1/7/2003

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Shoveltuskers are equipped with huge shovel-shaped jaws. They were among the largest proboscideans to have ever lived in Florida, rivaling even the later Ice Age mammoths and mastodons. They entered Florida about 9 million years ago, and disappeared at the end of the Miocene about 4.5 million years ago. They have enormous lower incisors that are spatulate, or shovel-like. Paleontologists traditionally believed that these beasts actually used their modified tusks to scoop up aquatic plants. However, research by University of Florida paleontologists suggests that these modified tusks may have been used for many purposes, such as digging, combat between males, and scraping the bark off trees.
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Shoveltuskers are equipped with huge shovel-shaped jaws. They were among the largest proboscideans to have ever lived in Florida, rivaling even the later Ice Age mammoths and mastodons. They entered Florida about 9 million years ago, and disappeared at the end of the Miocene about 4.5 million years ago. They have enormous lower incisors that are spatulate, or shovel-like. Paleontologists traditionally believed that these beasts actually used their modified tusks to scoop up aquatic plants. However, research by University of Florida paleontologists suggests that these modified tusks may have been used for many purposes, such as digging, combat between males, and scraping the bark off trees.