| Anthracobunidae Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
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| Cranial elements of anthracobunids | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Clade: | † Anthracobunia |
| Family: | † Anthracobunidae Wells and Gingerich, 1983 |
| Genera [1] [note 1] | |
| |
Anthracobunidae is an extinct family of stem perissodactyls that lived in the early to middle Eocene period. They were originally considered to be a paraphyletic family of primitive proboscideans [3] possibly ancestral to the Moeritheriidae and the desmostylians. The family has also thought to be ancestral to the Sirenia. [4]
They superficially resemble the Moeritheriidae in both size and cheek tooth morphology, but lack their characteristic tusks. They were relatively small, ranging in size from 1 to 2 m in length. They are known only from fragmentary remains (mainly teeth) from Eocene deposits of the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. Recently excavated fossils with well-preserved jaws and teeth demonstrate that these animals were either perissodactyls [1] [5] or else part of a more primitive sister group to the perissodactyls. [6] The anthracobunids were probably amphibious and lived in marshy environments. Analyses of stable isotopes and long bone geometry suggest most anthracobunids fed on terrestrial vegetation, but lived near water. [1] The same cladistic analyses that prompted their new placement also imply that the semiaquatic marine desmostylians, another putative non-African afrotherian group, were closely related to the anthracobunids. [1] [6]
