Falcatodon
| Falcatodon Temporal range:
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|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | †Hyaenodonta |
| Family: | †Hyainailouridae |
| Tribe: | †Hyainailourini |
| Genus: | †Falcatodon |
| Type species | |
| Metapterodon schlosseri | |
| Species | |
| |
Falcatodon is a genus of hyainailourid creodont from the Early Oligocene (Rupelian) of the Fayum Depression in Egypt.
Description
Morales and Pickford (2017, p. 344) diagnose Falcatodon as follows: "Medium sized Hyainailourinae, differing from Metapterodon by the reduction of the protocone in the upper molars (M1 – M2), which is located in a very anterior position. It differs from Hyainailouros by the more sectorial morphology of the upper molars, with more advanced fusion of the paracone-metacone with, nevertheless, a groove separating the cusps visible in the M1. Lower molars sectorial with reduced talonid and without a metaconid. It differs from Isohyaenodon, Sectisodon and Exiguodon, by the lesser reduction of the protocone in the upper molars which, above all, retain a stretched out subtriangular occlusal outline."[1]
Taxonomy
Falcatodon was originally described as a new species of Metapterodon, M. schlosseri, by Holroyd (1999), who nonetheless recognized that Eocene and Oligocene hyainailourids he assigned to Metapterodon might prove generically distinct.[2] Subsequent study demonstrated that Falcatodon is not only distinct from Metapterodon but also closely related to Isohyaenodon.[1]
References
- ^ a b Jorge Morales; Martin Pickford (2017). "New hyaenodonts (Ferae, Mammalia) from the Early Miocene of Napak (Uganda), Koru (Kenya) and Grillental (Namibia)". Fossil Imprint. 73 (3–4): 332–359. doi:10.1515/if-2017-0019.
- ^ Holroyd, P. A. (1999): New Pterodontinae (Creodonta: Hyaenodontidae) from the late Eocene–early Oligocene Jebel Qatrani Formation, Fayum Province, Egypt. – PaleoBios, 19(2): 1–18.
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