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Arsinoitheriidae

Cladus: Eukaryota
Supergroup: Opisthokonta
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Classis: Mammalia
Subclassis: Theria
Infraclassis: Eutheria
Superordo: Afrotheria
Ordo: †Embrithopoda
Familia: †Arsinoitheriidae
Genera: †Arsinoitherium - †Crivadiatherium - †Palaeoamasia

Name

Arsinoitheriidae Andrews, 1904

References

* The Paleobiology Database

Vernacular names
日本語: アルシノイテリウム科
中文: 埃及重腳獸科

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Arsinoitheriidae was a family of mammals belonging to the extinct order Embrithopoda. Remains have been found in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Romania. When alive, they would have had a great, albeit very superficial, resemblance to the modern rhinoceros. Despite this, they were not closely related to rhinoceri (or any other perissodactyl), instead being more related to hyraxes, elephants, sirenians, and desmostylians.

Fossil record
Arsinoitherium zitteli skull

Arsinoitheres first appeared in the fossil record during the Middle Eocene, with the teeth of the primitive Palaeoamasia found in Turkey.[1] The last genus is Arsinoitherium, itself, being first found in the Latest Eocene of the Fayum, then disappearing from the fossil record altogether before the end of the Early Oligocene. Crivadiatherium is known from some teeth found in the Romanian province of Transylvania in the same Late Eocene deposits where the western-most brontothere, Brachydiastematherium was found.

Etymology

The name honors the wife of Ptolemy II, Queen Arsinoe II of Egypt, where the first fossils of Arsinoitherium were found near the ruins of her palace.

References

1. ^ Rose, Kenneth D. & Archibald, J. D.: The Rise of Placental Mammals (p. 266). JHU Press, 2005 ISBN 0801884721


External links

* The Paleobiology Database

Biology Encyclopedia

Mammals Images

Source: Wikipedia, Wikispecies: All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License