The family Gomphotheriidae is the “waste basket” of proboscidean groups. Widely accepted as paraphyletic, gomphotheres are characterized by bunolophodont molars and extreme morphological variability. In this thesis, I attempt to resolve the phylogenetic relationships among gomphotheres and other proboscidean lineages by employing a craniomandibular character matrix that excludes characters pertaining to the most variable part of proboscidean skulls, their teeth. Using a combined-evidence Fossilized Birth-Death model, I use morphological, molecular, and stratigraphic range data to generate a phylogenetic hypothesis of proboscidean evolutionary history. The resulting tree topology largely agrees with the results of craniodental trees on the organization of proboscidean families, including the paraphyletic nature of the Gomphotheriidae. I also find evidence that the “shovel tusked” Amebelodontidae may be polyphyletic and that some of the morphological variability attributed to the species Gomphotherium productum is the result of misidentification and ignorance of independent North American lineages
