Palaeotheriidae
Sign in to savePalaeotheriidae is an extinct family of herbivorous perissodactyl mammals that inhabited Europe, with less abundant remains also known from Asia, from the mid-Eocene to the early Oligocene. They are classified in Equoidea, along with the living family Equidae (which includes zebras, horses and asses).
Article
7 sectionsContents
- Morphology
- Taxonomy
- Ecology
- Extinction
- Fossil distribution
- See also
- References
Palaeotheriidae is an extinct family of herbivorous perissodactyl mammals that inhabited Europe, with less abundant remains also known from Asia, from the mid-Eocene to the early Oligocene. They are classified in Equoidea, along with the living family Equidae (which includes zebras, horses and asses).
==Morphology== left|thumb|Life restoration of Palaeotherium|Palaeotherium magnum left|thumb|Size comparison show the range of size of various species of Palaeotherium Palaeotheres ranged widely in size, from small species like Palaeotherium lautricense, which is estimated to have only weighed to large species like Palaeotherium magnum, which are comparable in size to living equines, with body masses over . Their teeth are brachydont (low crowned). According to Danilo et al. 2013., paleotheriids are distinguished from other equoids by one unambiguous synapomorphy "the nasal notch opening distally to the canine, above the postcanine diastema" and two unambiguous character state changes "an average metaconule on [the fourth premolar]" and "an oblique metastyle on [the first and second molars]".