Prodinotherium Ehik, 1930 Prodeinotherium is an extinct representative of the family Deinotheriidae that lived in Africa, Europe, and Asia in the early and middle Miocene.

P. hobleyi was the first species of Prodeinotherium, and it migrated into Asia and Europe before evolving into P. pentapotamiae and then P. bavaricum.

[4][5] In appearance and many characters, it was like Deinotherium, but differed in being of smaller size, having shorter fore limbs, and also in various details in the shape and form of the teeth.

[1] Prodeinotherium is distinguished from Deinotherium from multiple features, including possessing a different dental formula of 003/103 and 0023/1023; M2-3 with an ornamentation; the rostrum turns down parallel to the mandibular symphysis; the rostrum and external nares narrow; the swelling of the preorbital is close to the orbit; the roof of the skull is longer and wider than in Deinotherium; the articulation between the neck vertebrae and skull is more upturned; the skeleton is graviportally adapted; the scapula has a prominent spine and a stout acromion and metacromion; and the carpal bones and tarsal bones are narrow, but not dolichopodous.

Within the evolution of Deinotheriidae, the paired "tongs" arrangement consisting of upper and lower incisors possessed by earlier Proboscideans was lost.

Some of these features include "small size, generally simple dental structure, less enamel plication and crenulation, ... thus the valleys of the premolars are well separated, slender teeth, bicuspid mesial lophid in P3 (the cuspids are distinct but more compressed against each other than in P. hobleyi), and clear mesial projection (“preprotolophide”) in P3; sometimes is bicuspid."

A distinguishing feature of Prodeinotherium is that the area at the base of the curve in the jaw is flat, while a depression is seen in all specimens of Deinotherium.

[1] The earliest remains of Prodeinotherium come from Kenya, where two deposits preserving the genus date to 22.5 and 19.5 Mya according to one 1978 study.

Their results are shown below:[11] Phosphatherium Numidotherium Barytherium Moeritherium Prodeinotherium Palaeomastodon Phiomia Hemimastodon Elephantimorpha Deinotherium bavaricum was originally mentioned in a paper by Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer in 1831.

However, his first description of the material came in 1833, in which he also created the new species Dinotherium bavaricum, the accidental change in genus spelling making it a lapsus calami.

The material known is the lectotype P3, in the Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und historische Geologie, selected from a group of specimens (a syntype) from Bavaria.

Meyer compared the tooth to the material of Deinotherium gigantium, and found enough features to distinguish it as a separate species.

As the earliest description of a small deinothere in Europe, P. bavaricum became the type species of Prodeinotherium.

The tooth morphology is very similar to that of P. bavaricum, and although the species has the unique feature of tusks that do not curve down and instead project forwards, Huttunen considered it a synonym of P.

[2] In 1868, Hugh Falconer's notes from before his death were published, including the description of material that he labelled Dinotherium pentapotamiae.

This presumption as D. indium was based on the possibility that D. giganteum was the only species of Deinotherium in Europe, and the variation of individuals of Mastodon longirostris within a population.

Andrews described these remains, which included a mandible with teeth, a calcaneum, a patella, and other indeterminable fragments, shipped to him by C.W.

It was compared to Dinotherium cuvieri, and although they were similar, the minor differences and geographical separation were enough for Andrews to create a new species.

Before postcranial material was known, the genera were considered to be rhinos, giant tapirs, sirenians, whales, and marsupials.

These restorations were inaccurate, because they showed the lower lip directly beneath the trunk, with the tusks projecting from the "chin".

Having a long, elephantine trunk was thought of as unlikely by multiple authors, including Harris and the 2001 study.

The trunks of deinotheres were likely similar to a tapirs, which could have been used for grasping plant matter and moving it to where the tongue could manipulate it.

[8] In Europe, fossils of Gomphotherium have been found alongside those of Prodeinotherium, showing that the genera likely ate different plants.

[3] Dental wear analysis of P. bavaricum and G. angustidens from the Middle Miocene site of Gračanica in Bosnia and Herzegovina confirms that while both taxa were strict browsers, the latter's diet consisted of more abrasive plants.