''Prodinoceras'' ("Before Terrible Horns") is the earliest known uintathere

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

, which lived in the late

Paleocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek ''pal ...

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 millio ...

. It was a relatively small uintathere, reaching in length. It is also regarded as the most basal uintathere, as, although it had the characteristic fang-like tusks, it had yet to evolve the characteristic knob-like horns. It is very similar to the North American '' Probathyopsis'', which experts regard as its

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

References

Dinoceratans Paleocene genus extinctions Fossils of Mongolia Prehistoric placental genera {{paleo-mammal-stub