''Cleopatrodon'' is an extinct genus of mammals in the order

Ptolemaiida Ptolemaiida is a taxon of wolf-sized afrothere mammals that lived in northern and eastern Africa during the Paleogene. The oldest fossils are from the latest Eocene strata of the Jebel Qatrani Formation, near the Fayum oasis in Egypt. A tooth is ...

. Two species are known from the

Lower Oligocene The Rupelian is, in the geologic timescale, the older of two ages or the lower of two stages of the Oligocene Epoch/Series. It spans the time between . It is preceded by the Priabonian Stage (part of the Eocene) and is followed by the Chatti ...

Jebel Qatrani Formation The Jebel Qatrani Formation (also Gebel Qatrani) is a palaeontological and geologic formation located in the Faiyum Governorate of central Egypt. Conformably overlying the Qasr el Sagha Formation. It is exposed namely between the Jebel Qatrani ...

of modern-day Egypt: ''C. ayeshae'', and the more powerfully built ''C. robusta''. The genus is named for

Cleopatra VII Philopator Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler. ...

, the last Ptolemaic Queen of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

Features

''Cleopatrodon'', like all ptolemaiids, can most easily be identified from its unusual

teeth A tooth ( : teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, t ...

. They were quite unspecialised at the anterior end of the mouth, with

canines Canine may refer to: Zoology and anatomy * a dog-like Canid animal in the subfamily Caninae ** ''Canis'', a genus including dogs, wolves, coyotes, and jackals ** Dog, the domestic dog * Canine tooth, in mammalian oral anatomy People with the surn ...

and

incisor Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, wher ...

s of a similar size, but the premolars and

molars The molars or molar teeth are large, flat teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammals. They are used primarily to grind food during chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, ''molaris dens'', meaning "millstone to ...

are very unusual. There are four premolars, rather than three as in most mammals, and three molars. In the

lower jaw In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

the premolars increased in size from premolar 1 to 4, and the molars decreased from 1 to 3, creating a smooth curve. The first and second premolars are large but similar to many mammal premolars, with one large cusp, although they did not seem to have been able to exert much

shearing force In solid mechanics, shearing forces are unaligned forces acting on one part of a body in a specific direction, and another part of the body in the opposite direction. When the forces are collinear (aligned with each other), they are called ...

. The third and fourth premolars are very large and have small

protocone A cusp is a pointed, projecting, or elevated feature. In animals, it is usually used to refer to raised points on the crowns of teeth. The concept is also used with regard to the leaflets of the four heart valves. The mitral valve, which has two ...

s, very large paracones and large metacones. Unlike the similar genus ''

Ptolemaia ''Ptolemaia'' is a genus of extinct Afrotherian mammals from the Oligocene of East Africa. The genus and type species, ''P. lyonsi'', was described by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1908 from the Jebel Qatrani Formation The Jebel Qatrani Formation ...

,'' the premolars 3 and 4 do not possess parastyles. These premolars would have had little shearing power. The molars are smaller than the premolars, but do not seem very different in structure, again seeming very specialised for some form of grinding different to the molars of

herbivorous mammals A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...

. Each tooth is between 8 and 12 mm long and 10 and 15 mm wide, much shorter and wider than those of ''Ptolemaia.'' Although only the teeth and jawbone fragments of ''Cleopatrodon'' have been found, from these it is estimated to have had a

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...

around 15–20 cm long with a long

jaw The jaw is any opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food. The term ''jaws'' is also broadly applied to the whole of the structures constituting the vault of the mouth and serv ...

and small braincase. The whole animal was probably slightly longer than a

Eurasian badger The European badger (''Meles meles''), also known as the Eurasian badger, is a badger species in the family Mustelidae native to almost all of Europe. It is classified as least concern on the IUCN Red List as it has a wide range and a large s ...

(''Meles meles)'' but less heavily built.

Diet

In all known ptolemaiid teeth, there is great wear on the surfaces of premolar 3 to molar 3, in the lower jaw, and premolar 4 to molar 1 in the upper jaw. As the other teeth in the upper jaw were greatly reduced, it is probable that ''Cleopatrodon'' and its relatives used these heavy-duty teeth for grinding against one another to crush its food. However, its teeth seemed very unsuited for grinding

plant material Vascular tissue is a complex conducting tissue, formed of more than one cell type, found in vascular plants. The primary components of vascular tissue are the xylem and phloem. These two tissues transport fluid and nutrients internally. There ...

, as they were not flat. For this reason, it has been hypothesised that it used them for cracking open shells or crushing some other resilient type of food. Because of the scarcity of cranial material and lack of post-cranial material, the nature of ''Cleopatrodon'''s and other ptolemaiids' diet remains in the realm of speculation.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q22285573 Oligocene mammals of Africa Ptolemaiidans Fossil taxa described in 1987 Cleopatra Prehistoric placental genera

Features

Diet

See also

References