Khamsaconus ("five-coned", referring to its tooth anatomy) is a genus of extinct mammal, possibly an early relative of elephants.
Taxonomy The holotype and only certain specimen of Khamsaconus, a lower fourth premolar, was recovered from the N'Tagourt 2 locality of the Ouarzazate Basin, Morocco. A paper describing it was published in 1993 by Jean Sudre and colleagues. They believed it to be a condylarth, part of a now-obsolete grouping of early Cenozoic mammals. Five years later, Emmanuel Gheerbrant and colleagues both examined the original tooth and a new specimen (an incomplete molar), concluding instead that Khamsaconus was a basal proboscidean. A paper from 2005 suggested that this tooth belonged to a hyracoid close to Seggeurius.
Classification The position of Khamsaconus within Afrotheria is uncertain. While often regarded as a proboscidean, the fact it is known from a single tooth leaves its status as a member of that group questionable. Furthermore, the anatomy of that tooth is not entirely consistent with a proboscidean affinity. Khamsaconus' teeth have a single layer of radial tooth enamel, as opposed to two layers as in other proboscideans, although this could be an evolutionary reversal correlating to body size.
Description Khamsaconus is a fairly small mammal. In 2026, Asier Larramendi and Marco P. Ferretti estimated, assuming a proboscidean identity, that it may have stood at the shoulder and weighed . The known premolar is generally akin to that of Phosphatherium, though differs in that it has a proportionally larger crown with bulbous cusps.
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