Arcanotherium

Arcanotherium Temporal range: Late Eocene–Early Oligocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Arcanotherium savagei mandible
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Proboscidea
Family:	† Numidotheriidae
Genus:	† Arcanotherium Delmer, 2009
Species:	†A. savagei
Binomial name
†Arcanotherium savagei Court, 1995

Arcanotherium is an extinct genus of early proboscidean belonging to the family Numidotheriidae that lived in North Africa during the late Eocene/early Oligocene interval.

Taxonomy

Arcanotherium was originally described by Court (1995) as a new species of Numidotherium , N. savagei, based on a mandible found in the late 1960s in late Eocene deposits at Dor el Talha, Libya. ^[1] However, after the Barytherium material from Libya became accessible to paleontologists, undescribed material from the collection prompted Delmer (2009) to erect Arcanotherium for N. savagei. ^[2]

Phylogeny

Below is a phylogenetic tree of early Proboscidea, based on the work of Hautier et al. (2021). ^[3]

Proboscidea	Eritherium Phosphatherium Daouitherium Numidotherium Barytherium Arcanotherium Omanitherium Saloumia Moeritherium Deinotheriidae Elephantiformes Elephantimorpha Dagbatitherium

References

1. N. Court. 1995. A new species of Numidotherium (Mammalia, Proboscidea) from the Eocene of Libya and the early phylogeny of the Proboscidea. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 15(3):650-671.
2. C. Delmer. 2009. Reassessment of the generic attribution of Numidotherium savagei and the homologies of lower incisors in proboscideans. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 54(4):561-580
3. Hautier, Lionel; Tabuce, Rodolphe; Mourlam, Mickaël J.; Kassegne, Koffi Evenyon; Amoudji, Yawovi Zikpi; Orliac, Maëva; Quillévéré, Frédéric; Charruault, Anne-Lise; Johnson, Ampah Kodjo Christophe; Guinot, Guillaume (2021-10-13). "New Middle Eocene proboscidean from Togo illuminates the early evolution of the elephantiform-like dental pattern". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 288 (1960): 20211439. doi:10.1098/rspb.2021.1439. PMC   8511763 . PMID   34641726.