Anoplotherium

Anoplotherium
Temporal range: late Eocene
Anoplotherium commune skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Artiodactyla
Family:†Anoplotheriidae
Genus:†Anoplotherium
Cuvier, 1804
Species

†A. latipes Gervais, 1852

Synonyms

Genus-level:
Eurytherium Gervais, 1852
Hoplotherium Meyer, 1841
Oplotherium Laizer & Parieu, 1838
Pleregnathus Laizer & Parieu, 1838
"Thylacomorphus" Gervais, 1876 (nomen nudum)

Species-level:
Anoplotherium platypus Pomel, 1851
Anoplotherium commune Cuvier, 1804

Anoplotherium is an extinct genus of ungulates which lived from the Late Eocene to the earliest Oligocene. It was first found in the gypsum quarries near Paris.[1]

This animal probably weighed about 80 kg, a weight comparable to that of the living llama.

A 2006 anatomical study on specimens from Montmarte, and a near intact skeleton of an immature individual from the Bouldnor Formation of the Isle Of Wight, UK, found that the morphology and functionality of Anoplotherium suggests it was capable of bipedal browsing, using its muscular tail for support. Anoplotherium would have been able to browse 2-3m off the ground, greatly reducing interspecific competition with other mammalian herbivores.[2]

References

Media related to Anoplotherium at Wikimedia Commons

  1. ↑ http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118484589/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
  2. ↑ [Bipedal browsing adaptions of the unusual Late Eocene-earliest Oligocene tylopod Anoplotherium (Artiodactyla, Mammalia), J.J Hooker, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 151, 609-659.]


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