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Chalicotheriinae
Chalicotheriines are one of the two subfamilies of the extinct family Chalicotheriidae, a group of herbivorous, odd-toed ungulate ''(perissodactyl)'' mammals that lived from the Eocene to the Pleistocene. The other subfamily is the Schizotheriinae. Chalcotheriines evolved unique characteristics for ungulates, with very long forelimbs, short hindlimbs, and a relatively gorilla-like physique, including knuckle-walking on their flexible forelimbs, which bore long curved claws. Members of this subfamily possessed some of the longest forelimbs and shortest hindlimbs in relation to each other out of all extinct animals. Analysis of dental wear implies that most chalicotheriines fed on seeds and fruit. Their claws were likely used in a hook-like manner to pull down branches, suggesting they lived as bipedal browsers. Presence of chalicothere fossils is generally regarded as an indicator of forested environments. Unlike schizotheriines, chalicotheriines were typically confined to moist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chalicotheres
Chalicotheres (from Greek language, Greek ''wikt:χάλιξ, chalix'', "gravel" and ''wikt:θηρίον, therion'', "beast") are an extinct clade of herbivorous, odd-toed ungulate (perissodactyl) mammals that lived in North America, Eurasia, and Africa from the Eocene, Middle Eocene until the Early Pleistocene, existing from 48.6 to 1.806 Annum, mya. They are one of the five major Evolutionary radiation, radiations of perissodactyls, with three groups living (Equidae, horses, plus the extinct Palaeotheriidae, paleotheres; Rhinoceros, rhinoceroses; Tapiroidea, tapirs), and two extinct (Brontotheriidae, brontotheres and chalicotheres). Description Unlike modern perissodactyls, chalicotheres had clawed feet. They had longer forelimbs and shorter hind limbs, lower incisors that cropped food against a toothless pad in the upper jaw, low-crowned molar teeth, and were browsers on trees and shrubs throughout their history. They evolved in two different directions, which became separate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chalicotheriidae
Chalicotheres (from Greek '' chalix'', "gravel" and '' therion'', "beast") are an extinct clade of herbivorous, odd-toed ungulate (perissodactyl) mammals that lived in North America, Eurasia, and Africa from the Middle Eocene until the Early Pleistocene, existing from 48.6 to 1.806 mya. They are one of the five major radiations of perissodactyls, with three groups living ( horses, plus the extinct paleotheres; rhinoceroses; tapirs), and two extinct (brontotheres and chalicotheres). Description Unlike modern perissodactyls, chalicotheres had clawed feet. They had longer forelimbs and shorter hind limbs, lower incisors that cropped food against a toothless pad in the upper jaw, low-crowned molar teeth, and were browsers on trees and shrubs throughout their history. They evolved in two different directions, which became separate subfamilies, the Schizotheriinae and the Chalicotheriinae. Schizotherine chalicotheres such as ''Moropus'' lived in a variety of forest, woodland, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schizotheriinae
Schizotheriines are one of the two subfamilies of the extinct family Chalicotheriidae, a group of herbivorous odd-toed ungulate (perissodactyl) mammals that lived from the Eocene to the Pleistoscene. The other clade is the Chalicotheriinae. Both clades had claws rather than hooves on their front feet, an adaptation understood as related to feeding. Schizotheriines also had claws on their hind feet. The fossils of both groups are found in environments that had trees and shrubs. While chalicotheriines developed very derived body forms, schizotheriines remained basically similar in shape to other perissodactyls such as horses and tapirs. Like most forest-dwelling ungulates, they had long necks and forelimbs longer than their hindlimbs. Schizotheriines had longer, higher-crowned cheek teeth than chalicotheriines, which indicates they typically fed on tougher vegetation. The sediments where their fossils are found show they also lived in a wider range of environments, from moist forest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chalicotherium
''Chalicotherium'' (Ancient Greek /, -: pebble/gravel + /, diminutive of / : beast) is a genus of extinct odd-toed ungulates of the order Perissodactyla and family Chalicotheriidae. The genus is known from Europe and Asia, from the Middle Miocene to Late Miocene. This animal would look much like other chalicotheriid species: an odd-looking herbivore with long clawed forelimbs and stouter weight-bearing hindlimbs. The type species, ''Chalicotherium goldfussi'', from Late Miocene Europe, was described by Johann Jakob Kaup in 1833. When the French naturalist George Cuvier first received a cleft claw from Eppelheim, Germany, he identified it as the toe bone of a gigantic pangolin. Description ''Chalicotherium'', like many members of Perissodactyla, was adapted to browsing, though the chalicotheres were uniquely adapted to do so among ungulates. Its arms were long and heavily clawed, allowing them to walk on their knuckles only. The arms were used to reach for the branches ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalimantsia
''Kalimantsia'' is an extinct chalicothere from the Miocene of Bulgaria, Europe. It contains one species, ''K. bulgarica''. Description ''Kalimantsia'' is named for the area in which it was discovered in 2001 by Geraads, Spassov, and Kovachev. The habitat would have been quite open and the remains of ''Kalimantsia'' are accompanied by those of horses, early deer, and various carnivorous mammals. ''Kalimantsia'' has a shorter muzzle than the horse-like shapes of the rest of the chalicotheres. It also has a domed head that would have resembled those of pachycephalosaurs. It is believed that males often competed by butting their heads together. The teeth of ''Kalimantsia'' are long and low, and well adapted for eating leaves. Size * 3 m (10 ft.) Lifestyle * Browser See also *''Tylocephalonyx ''Tylocephalonyx'' (Greek: "knob" (tylos), "head" (kephalos), "claw/hoof" (onyx)) is an extinct chalicothere from the Miocene of North America. Description ''Tylocephalonyx'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hesperotherium
''Hesperotherium'' is a genus of chalicotheres from the Early to Middle Pleistocene of China. It was the last of the chalicotheres to ever exist. It belonged to the subfamily Chalicotheriinae, which also includes '' Anisodon'', ''Chalicotherium'' and '' Nestoritherium''. Etymology The genus name, ''Hesperotherium'', is derived from the Greek ''hesperos'', meaning "dusk" or "west" and ''therion'', meaning "beast". The specific name means "from China".'''' Palaeoecology ''Hesperotherium'' would have coexisted with the proboscidean ''Sinomastodon'', the giant ape ''Gigantopithecus,'' the pig '' Hippopotamodon'', the mouse-deer ''Dorcabune'', and the deer '' Cervavitus,'' as well as the pandas ''Ailuropoda wulingshanensis'' and ''Ailuropoda baconi,'' the dhole ''Cuon antiquus'', the tapir ''Tapirus sinensis'' and the proboscidean ''Stegodon''. Other classic animals typically include orangutans, macaques, rhinos, hedgehogs, hyenas, horses, the cow '' Leptobos'', pikas, the extin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nestoritherium
''Nestoritherium'' is an extinct genus of chalicothere; it has been dated to have lived from the late Miocene to the Early Pleistocene (11.6–0.781 mya). This range makes ''Nestoritherium'' one of the most recently dated chalicotheres. It has been found in fossil sites in Myanmar and China. The genus ''Nestoritherium'' was erected by German paleontologist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1859 for the species then known as ''Chalicotherium sivalense'', itself named in 1843 by Falconer and Cautley from early Pleistocene material from India. The shortened faced and brachyodont dentition suggest it belongs to the subfamily Chalicotheriinae. ''Nestoritherium fuguense'' was named from partial lower jaw and palate material from Miocene beds in Fugu County, China in 2014. Material consisting of a fragmentary upper and lower molar recovered from the (early Pleistocene) Irrawaddy Formation in Myanmar has been referred to the genus ''Nestoritherium''. A femur of possible chalicothere origin was recov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates than the Pliocene has. The Miocene is preceded by the Oligocene and is followed by the Pliocene. As Earth went from the Oligocene through the Miocene and into the Pliocene, the climate slowly cooled towards a series of ice ages. The Miocene boundaries are not marked by a single distinct global event but consist rather of regionally defined boundaries between the warmer Oligocene and the cooler Pliocene Epoch. During the Early Miocene, the Arabian Peninsula collided with Eurasia, severing the connection between the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, and allowing a faunal interchange to occur between Eurasia and Africa, including the dispersal of proboscideans into Eurasia. During the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Browsing (predation)
Browsing is a type of herbivory in which a herbivore (or, more narrowly defined, a folivore) feeds on leaves, soft shoots, or fruits of high-growing, generally woody plants such as shrubs. This is contrasted with grazing, usually associated with animals feeding on grass or other lower vegetations. Alternatively, grazers are animals eating mainly grass, and browsers are animals eating mainly non-grasses, which include both woody and herbaceous dicots. In either case, an example of this dichotomy are goats (which are primarily browsers) and sheep (which are primarily grazers). Browse The plant material eaten is known as ''browse'' and is in nature taken directly from the plant, though owners of livestock such as goats and deer may cut twigs or branches for feeding to their stock. In temperate regions, owners take browse before leaf fall, then dry and store it as a winter feed supplement. In time of drought, herdsmen may cut branches from beyond the reach of their stock, as forage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pleistocene Extinctions
The Quaternary period (from 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present) has seen the extinctions of numerous predominantly megafaunal species, which have resulted in a collapse in faunal density and diversity and the extinction of key ecological strata across the globe. The most prominent event in the Late Pleistocene is differentiated from previous Quaternary pulse extinctions by the widespread absence of ecological succession to replace these extinct species, and the regime shift of previously established faunal relationships and habitats as a consequence. The earliest casualties were incurred at 130,000 BCE (the start of the Late Pleistocene), in Australia ~ 60,000 years ago, in Americas ~ 15,000 years ago, coinciding in time with the early human migrations. However, the great majority of extinctions in Afro-Eurasia and the Americas occurred during the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene epoch (13,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE). This extinction wave di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moropus
''Moropus'' (meaning "slow foot") is an extinct genus of large perissodactyl ("odd-toed" ungulate) mammal in the chalicothere family. They were endemic to North America during the Miocene from ~20.4—13.6 Mya, existing for approximately . ''Moropus'' belonged to the schizotheriine subfamily of chalicotheres, and has the best fossil record of any member of this group; numbers of individuals, including complete skeletons, have been found. The closest extant relatives of ''Moropus'' are other perissodactyls: Equus (genus), horses, Rhinoceros, rhinos, and tapirs. Description Like other chalicothere Chalicotheres (from Greek '' chalix'', "gravel" and '' therion'', "beast") are an extinct clade of herbivorous, odd-toed ungulate (perissodactyl) mammals that lived in North America, Eurasia, and Africa from the Middle Eocene until the Early Plei ...s, ''Moropus'' differed from typical ungulates in having large claws, rather than hooves, on the feet. Three large, highly compress ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megatheriidae
Megatheriidae is a family of extinct ground sloths that lived from approximately 23 mya—11,000 years ago. Megatheriids appeared during the Late Oligocene (Deseadan in the SALMA classification), some 29 million years ago, in South America. The group includes the heavily built '' Megatherium'' (given its name 'great beast' by Georges Cuvier) and ''Eremotherium''. An early genus that was originally considered a megatheriid, the more slightly built ''Hapalops'', reached a length of about . The nothrotheres have recently been placed in their own family, Nothrotheriidae. The skeletal structure of these ground sloths indicates that the animals were massive. Their thick bones and even thicker joints (especially those on the hind legs) gave their appendages tremendous power that, combined with their size and fearsome claws, provided a formidable defense against predators. The earliest megatheriid in North America was ''Sibotherium'' which arrived 5.3 million years ago, after cros ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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