Category
page 1Xiphodontidae
Xiphodontidae
Xiphodontidae (from Ancient Greek ξίφος (xíphos), meaning "sword", and ὀδούς (odoús), meaning "tooth") is an extinct family of herbivorous even-toed ungulates (order Artiodactyla), endemic to Europe during the Eocene 40.4—33.9 million years ago, existing for about 7.5 million years. Paraxiphodon suggests that they survived into the Lower Oligocene, at least.
Xiphodon
Xiphodon (from Ancient Greek ξίφος (xíphos), meaning "sword", and ὀδούς (odoús), meaning "tooth") is the type genus of the extinct Palaeogene artiodactyl family Xiphodontidae. It, like other xiphodonts, was endemic to Western Europe and lived from the Middle Eocene up to the earliest Oligocene. Fossils from Montmartre in Paris, France that belonged to X. gracilis were first described by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1804. Although he assigned the species to Anoplotherium, he recognized that it differed from A. commune by its dentition and limb bones, later moving it to its own subgen