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Eotitanops
''Eotitanops'' ('dawn titan-face') is an extinct genus of brontothere native to North America and Asia. ''Eotitanops'' is the earliest known genus of brontothere. While brontotheres generally known as very large animals, ''Eotitanops'' was only tall at the shoulder. It probably resembled a larger, bulkier version of its contemporary, the horse-like palaeothere ''Hyracotherium''. Like ''Hyracotherium'', it ate leaves and had five-toed front legs and three-toed hind legs. References * Brontotheres Eocene odd-toed ungulates Eocene mammals of North America {{paleo-oddtoedungulate-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brontothere
Brontotheriidae is a family of extinct mammals belonging to the order Perissodactyla, the order that includes horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs. Superficially, they looked rather like rhinos, although they were actually more closely related to horses; Equidae and Brontotheriidae make up the suborder Hippomorpha. They lived around 56–34 million years ago, until the very close of the Eocene. Characteristics and evolution Brontotheres retain four toes on their front feet and three toes on their hind feet. Their teeth are adapted to shearing (cutting) relatively nonabrasive vegetation. Their molars have a characteristic W-shaped ectoloph (outer shearing blade). The evolutionary history of this group is well known due to an excellent fossil record in North America. The earliest brontotheres, such as ''Eotitanops'', were rather small, no more than a meter in height, and hornless. Brontotheres evolved massive bodies, although some small species such as ''Nanotitanops'' did pers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Titanothere Osborn
Brontotheriidae is a family of extinct mammals belonging to the order Perissodactyla, the order that includes horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs. Superficially, they looked rather like rhinos, although they were actually more closely related to horses; Equidae and Brontotheriidae make up the suborder Hippomorpha. They lived around 56–34 million years ago, until the very close of the Eocene. Characteristics and evolution Brontotheres retain four toes on their front feet and three toes on their hind feet. Their teeth are adapted to shearing (cutting) relatively nonabrasive vegetation. Their molars have a characteristic W-shaped ectoloph (outer shearing blade). The evolutionary history of this group is well known due to an excellent fossil record in North America. The earliest brontotheres, such as ''Eotitanops'', were rather small, no more than a meter in height, and hornless. Brontotheres evolved massive bodies, although some small species such as ''Nanotitanops'' did pers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brontotheres
Brontotheriidae is a family of extinct mammals belonging to the order Perissodactyla, the order that includes horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs. Superficially, they looked rather like rhinos, although they were actually more closely related to horses; Equidae and Brontotheriidae make up the suborder Hippomorpha. They lived around 56–34 million years ago, until the very close of the Eocene. Characteristics and evolution Brontotheres retain four toes on their front feet and three toes on their hind feet. Their teeth are adapted to shearing (cutting) relatively nonabrasive vegetation. Their molars have a characteristic W-shaped ectoloph (outer shearing blade). The evolutionary history of this group is well known due to an excellent fossil record in North America. The earliest brontotheres, such as ''Eotitanops'', were rather small, no more than a meter in height, and hornless. Brontotheres evolved massive bodies, although some small species such as ''Nanotitanops'' did pers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family (taxonomy), family. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus. :E.g. ''Panthera leo'' (lion) and ''Panthera onca'' (jaguar) are two species within the genus ''Panthera''. ''Panthera'' is a genus within the family Felidae. The composition of a genus is determined by taxonomy (biology), taxonomists. The standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. There are some general practices used, however, including the idea that a newly defined genus should fulfill these three criteria to be descriptively useful: # monophyly – all descendants ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palaeothere
Palaeotheriidae is an extinct family of herbivorous perissodactyl mammals related to equids. They ranged across Europe and Asia from the Eocene through to the early Oligocene 55–33 Ma, existing for approximately . Living in dense forests, they ate soft leaves, shoots, berries, and leaf matter picked up from the forest floor. Morphology Palaeothere sizes ranged from at the shoulder, and weighed an estimated .S. Legendre. 1988. Les communautes de mammiferes du Paleogene (Eocene superieur et Oligocene) d'Europe occidentale: structure, milieux et evolution. Ph.D. thesis, Universite des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc, Montpellier, France. 2 volumes. 1-265 Extinction Evidence suggests that the palaeotheriidae went extinct in Eurasia during the Early Oligocene, approximately 33 Ma, as part of a faunal turnover event known as the Grande Coupure. The Eocene-Oligocene transition marked a significant global cooling event caused by the onset of Antarctic glaciatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyracotherium
''Hyracotherium'' ( ; "hyrax-like beast") is an extinct genus of very small (about 60 cm in length) perissodactyl ungulates that was found in the London Clay formation. This small, fox-sized animal was once considered to be the earliest known member of Equidae before the type species, ''H. leporinum'', was reclassified as a palaeothere, a perissodactyl family basal to both horses and brontotheres. The remaining species are now thought to belong to different genera, such as ''Eohippus'', which had previously been synonymised with ''Hyracotherium''. Description ''Hyracotherium'' averaged 78 cm (2.5 feet) in length and weighed about 9 kg (20 pounds). It had a short face with eye sockets in the middle and a short diastema (the space between the front teeth and the cheek teeth). The skull was long, having 44 low-crowned teeth. Although it had low-crowned teeth, the beginnings of the characteristic horse-like ridges on the molars can be seen. ''Hyracotherium'' is believed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eocene Odd-toed Ungulates
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', "dawn") and (''kainós'', "new") and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope 12C. The end is set at a major extinction event called the ''Grande Coupure'' (the "Great Break" in continuity) or the Eocene–Oligocene extinction event, which may be related to the impact of one or more large bolides in Siberia and in what is now Chesapeake Bay. As with other geologic periods, the strata that define the start and end of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
