Rhynchotherium is an extinct genus of proboscidea endemic to North America and Central America during the Miocene through Pliocene from 13.650 to 3.6 Ma, living for approximately 10 million years.

[2] Rhynchotherium was first described in 1868 on the basis of a lower jaw from the Miocene of Tlaxcala, Mexico.

[3] Later, the type species epithet R. tlascalae was erected for the jaw by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1918.

[5] Other species subsequently assigned to Rhynchotherium included R. falconeri,[6] R. paredensis, R. browni,[7] and R.

[10] Because the genotype of Rhynchotherium is referable to Gomphotherium, the ICZN was petitioned to conserve the genus by designating R. falconeri as the type species,[11] which it did.