Eoentelodon
Appearance
This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2009) |
Eoentelodon Temporal range: Middle Eocene
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Family: | †Entelodontidae |
Genus: | †Eoentelodon Chow, 1958 |
Eoentelodon is a small, primitive entelodont, assigned as such by Carroll (1998), from the Middle Eocene of China. It was a very small entelodont, about the size of a modern pig, and was slightly smaller than its North American counterpart, Brachyhyops.
Eoentelodon was synonymized subjectively with Brachyhyops by Lucas and Emry (2004). However, in 2007, I. Vislobokova determined that Eoentelodon was not only distinct from Brachyhyops, but more closely related to Proentelodon, another primitive entelodont found in slightly older Middle Eocene strata of Mongolia.[1]
References
- ^ I. A. Vislobokova (12 November 2008). "The oldest representative of Entelodontoidea (Artiodactyla, Suiformes) from the Middle Eocene of Khaichin Ula II, Mongolia, and some evolutionary features of this superfamily". Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal (Paleontological Journal). 42 (6): 643–654. doi:10.1134/S0031030108060105.