Anoplotheriidae
| Anoplotheriidae Temporal range: Eocene–Oligocene |
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| 19th-century reconstruction of Anoplotherium at Crystal Palace, London |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Suborder: | Tylopoda |
| Superfamily: | Anoplotherioidea |
| Family: | Anoplotheriidae Gray, 1821[verification needed] |
| Subfamilies | |
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Anoplotheriinae |
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| Synonyms | |
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Anoplotheriina Bonaparte 1850 |
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Anoplotheriidae is a prehistorically extinct family of even-toed ungulates (order Artiodactyla).They were endemic to Western Europe[verification needed] during the Eocene and Oligocene epochs about 48—23[verification needed] Ma ago, existing for approximately 25 million years. They disappeared at the beginning of the Neogene, leaving no survivors today.[1]
They were most likely mid-sized terrestrial herbivores not too distantly related to camels, but smaller, low-slung with a long and thick tail, and rather generalistic. The climate during their time was warmer than today, and their habitat was probably subtropical or even tropical, with plentiful rainfall and abundant vegetation. Tropical rainforest may at least initially have occurred all over the Anoplotheriidae's range. Ecologically they may have resembled a large duiker of our time (e.g. the similarly-sized Yellow-backed Duiker Cephalophus silvicultor), foraging in dense growth where their low build would have been advantageous.
Systematics and taxonomy [edit]
The family Anoplotheriidae was assigned to Tesserachenae by Gray in 1821, to Belluae by Bonaparte (who named it Anoplotheriina) in 1850; to Artiodactyla by Cope in 1889, to Ruminantia by Gregory in 1910 and finally to its own superfamily Anoplotherioidea by Romer in 1966.[2][3][4]
Here, the Anoplotherioidea are also considered to include the Cainotheriidae and Dacrytheriidae. Other authors treat the former as more distantly related and sometimes include the Dacrytheriidae in the Anoplotheriidae as a third subfamily, Dacrytheriinae. On the other hand, the Robiaciinae can be considered the most basal branch of the Anoplotheriinae, resulting in no subfamilies at all being recognized, or be elevated to a fourth (or third) family in the Anoplotherioidea.
The subfamilies and genera included here are thus:
Subfamily Robiaciinae Sudre, 1977 (basal; disputed)
- Genus Robiacina Sudre, 1969
Subfamily Anoplotheriinae Gray, 1821[verification needed] (advanced)
- Genus Anoplotherium
- Genus Deilotherium Filhol, 1882
- Genus Diplartiopus (tentatively placed here)
- Genus Diplobune Rutimeyer, 1862
- Genus Duerotherium
- Genus Ephelcomenus Hurzeler, 1938
- Genus Hyracodontherium (tentatively placed here)
- Genus Robiatherium Sudre, 1988
References [edit]
- ^ PaleoBiology Database: Anoplotheriidae, basic info
- ^ C.-L. Bonaparte. 1850. Conspectus Systematis Mastozoologiae. Editio Altera Reformata [Survey of the system of mammals. Second revised edition].
- ^ E. D. Cope. 1889. Synopsis of the families of Vertebrata. The American Naturalist 23:1-29
- ^ J. J. Hooker. 1986. Mammals from the Bartonian (middle/late Eocene) of the Hampshire Basin, southern England. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) 39(4):191-478
