Falcatodon
Falcatodon is a genus of hyainailourid creodont from the Early Oligocene (Rupelian) of the Fayum Depression in Egypt.
Falcatodon | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | †Creodonta |
Family: | †Hyainailouridae |
Genus: | †Falcatodon |
Type species | |
Metapterodon schlosseri | |
Species | |
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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
- 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:10.2478/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.