Bothriodon

Bothriodon Temporal range: Late Eocene
Bothriodon americanus skull at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	† Anthracotheriidae
Genus:	† Bothriodon Aymard, 1848

Bothriodon (Greek: "pit" (botros), "teeth" (odontes) ^[1] ) is an extinct genus of anthracotheriid artiodactyl from the late Eocene to early Oligocene of Asia, Europe, and North America.

Description

Life reconstruction by Robert Bruce Horsfall, 1913

Bothriodon was about the size of a large pig, reaching an estimated weight of more than 199 kg (439 lbs). ^[2] Bothriodon possesses molars transitional between bunodont and selenodont in morphology. Alongside this, the upper molars possess 5 cusps as opposed to the derived 4. They also possessed a reduced pollex on the 5 toed manus. ^[3]

References

1. "Glossary. American Museum of Natural History". Archived from the original on 20 November 2021.
2. Tsubamoto, Takehisa (2010). "Additional specimens of the Anthracotheriidae (Mammalia; Artiodactyla) from the upper Eocene Ergilin Dzo Formation of Mongolia". Hayashibara Museum of Natural Sciences Research Bulletin. 3: 143–147.
3. Scott, William Berryman (1913). A history of land mammals in the western hemisphere. Smithsonian Libraries. New York, The MacMillan Company.

Further reading

• The Beginning of the Age of Mammals by Kenneth D. Rose
• Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids by Jordi Agusti and Mauricio Anton