| Orhaniyeia Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Family: | † Anatoliadelphyidae |
| Genus: | † Orhaniyeia Métais et. al., 2018 |
| Species: | †O. nauta |
| Binomial name | |
| †Orhaniyeia nauta Métais et. al., 2018 | |
Orhaniyeia is an extinct genus of anatoliadelphyid that inhabited Turkey during the Eocene epoch. It contains the species Orhaniyeia nauta.
Orhaniyeia nauta is known from the Pontide terrane of what was then the continent of Balkanatolia, living during the Lutetian about 43 Ma. [1]
Based on its dentition, O. nauta was durophagous and probably fed on gastropods. [2]
The Eocene is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name Eocene comes from the Ancient Greek Ἠώς and καινός and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch.
Palaeotherium is an extinct genus of equoid that lived in Europe and possibly the Middle East from the Middle Eocene to the Early Oligocene. It is the type genus of the Palaeotheriidae, a group exclusive to the Palaeogene that was closest in relation to the Equidae, which contains horses plus their closest relatives and ancestors. Fossils of Palaeotherium were first described in 1782 by the French naturalist Robert de Lamanon and then closely studied by another French naturalist, Georges Cuvier, after 1798. Cuvier erected the genus in 1804 and recognized multiple species based on overall fossil sizes and forms. As one of the first fossil genera to be recognized with official taxonomic authority, it is recognized as an important milestone within the field of palaeontology. The research by early naturalists on Palaeotherium contributed to the developing ideas of evolution, extinction, and succession and demonstrating the morphological diversity of different species within one genus.
The Eocene–Oligocene extinction event, also called the Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) or Grande Coupure, is the transition between the end of the Eocene and the beginning of the Oligocene, an extinction event and faunal turnover occurring between 33.9 and 33.4 million years ago. It was marked by large-scale extinction and floral and faunal turnover, although it was relatively minor in comparison to the largest mass extinctions.
Duerotherium is an extinct genus of artiodactyl that lived during the Middle Eocene and is only known from the Iberian Peninsula. The genus is a member of the family Anoplotheriidae and the subfamily Anoplotheriinae, and contains one species, D. sudrei. Like other anoplotheriids, it was endemic to Western Europe. The genus was described based on a left fragment of a maxilla from the Mazaterón Formation of the Duero Basin, from which its name derives, in 2009. Its dentition is mostly typical of the Anoplotheriinae but differs from related genera in the elongated and triangular third upper premolar and traits of the molars. It is thought to have been part of an endemic fauna that evolved in the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Eocene, when climates were subtropical.
Palaeochiropterygidae is a family of extinct bats. It was originally erected by the Swiss naturalist Pierre Revilliod in 1917 after discoveries of Palaeochiropteryx fossils from the Messel Pit of Germany. Palaeochiropterygidae was merged into Archaeonycteridae by Kurten and Anderson in 1980, but modern authorities specializing in bat fossils maintain the distinction between the two. It was classified to the unranked clade Microchiropteramorpha by Smith et al. in 2007.
Xiphodon 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 subgenus in 1822. Xiphodon was promoted to genus rank by other naturalists in later decades. It is today defined by the type species X. gracilis and two other species, X. castrensis and X. intermedium.
Plagiolophus is an extinct genus of equoids belonging to the family Palaeotheriidae. It lived in Europe from the middle Oligocene to the early Oligocene. The type species P. minor was initially described by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1804 based on postcranial material including a now-lost skeleton originally from the Paris Basin. It was classified to Palaeotherium the same year but was reclassified to the subgenus Plagiolophus, named by Auguste Pomel in 1847. Plagiolophus was promoted to genus rank by subsequent palaeontologists and today includes as many as seventeen species. As proposed by the French palaeontologist Jean A. Remy in 2004, it is defined by three subgenera: Plagiolophus, Paloplotherium, and Fraasiolophus.
This paleomammalogy list records new fossil mammal taxa that were described during the year 2009, as well as notes other significant paleomammalogy discoveries and events which occurred during that year.
The Amphipithecidae were simian primates that lived in Late Eocene and Early Oligocene. Fossils have been found in Myanmar, Thailand, and Pakistan. The limited fossil evidence is consistent with, but not exclusive to, arboreal quadrupedalism. In other words, the species may have moved about in trees on four legs, but not with regular leaping as seen in later simians.
Anatoliadelphys maasae is an extinct genus of predatory metatherian mammal from the Eocene of Anatolia. It was an arboreal, cat-sized animal, with powerful crushing jaws similar to those of the modern Tasmanian devil. Although most mammalian predators of the northern hemisphere in this time period were placentals, Europe was an archipelago, and the island landmass now forming Turkey might have been devoid of competing mammalian predators, though this may not matter since other carnivorous metatherians are also known from the Cenozoic in the Northern Hemisphere. Nonetheless, it stands as a reminder that mammalian faunas in the Paleogene of the Northern Hemisphere were more complex than previously thought, and metatherians did not immediately lose their hold as major predators after their success in the Cretaceous.
Nanotitanops is an extinct genus of Brontothere from the middle Eocene of China. It contains a single species, N. shanghuangensis. It is known only from isolated teeth, the smallest of any known Brontothere.
Anatoliadelphyidae is an extinct family of metatherian mammals, endemic to the Pontide terrane, during the Middle Eocene (Lutetian), around 43 million years ago, when the terrane formed an island landmass with an insular endemic fauna, which also included herpetotheriid and polydolopimorphian metatherians, as well as archaic pleuraspidotheriid ungulates and enigmatic insectivores. The cat-sized Anatoliadelphys is the best known member, and is thought to have been a carnivore or omnivore.
For some 10 million years until the end of the Eocene, Balkanatolia was an island continent or a series of islands, separate from Asia and also from Western Europe. The area now comprises approximately the modern Balkans and Anatolia. Fossil mammals from this area are distinct from the mammal fauna of either western Europe or Asia.
Catodontherium is an extinct genus of Palaeogene artiodactyls belonging to the family Anoplotheriidae. It was endemic to Western Europe and had a temporal range exclusive to the middle Eocene, although its earliest appearance depends on whether C. argentonicum is truly a species of Catodontherium. It was first named Catodus by the French palaeontologist Charles Depéret in 1906, who created two species for the genus and later changed the genus name to Catodontherium in 1908. The Swiss palaeontologist Hans Georg Stehlin renamed one species and classified two other newly erected species to Catodontherium in 1910. Today, there are four known species, although two remain questionable in genus placement.
Ephelcomenus is an extinct genus of Palaeogene artiodactyls endemic to Western Europe. It contains one species E. filholi, which was first described by Richard Lydekker in 1889 but eventually classified to its own genus by the Swiss palaeontologist Johannes Hürzeler in 1938. It has an uncertain stratigraphic range, but some sources suggest that it was present in the Oligocene after the Grande Coupure turnover event of western Europe.
Robiatherium is an extinct genus of Palaeogene artiodactyls containing one species R. cournovense. The genus name derives from the locality of Robiac in France where some of its fossil were described plus the Greek θήρ/therium meaning "beast" or "wild animal". It was known only from the middle Eocene and, like other anoplotheriids, was endemic to Western Europe. The genus was erected by Jean Sudre in 1988 for a species originally attributed to the xiphodont genus Paraxiphodon in 1978. Robiatherium had dentitions typical of the subfamily Anoplotheriinae, differing from other genera by specific differences in the molars. It is one of the earliest-appearing anoplotheriine species in the fossil record as well as the earliest to have appeared in Central Europe.
Haplomeryx is an extinct genus of Palaeogene artiodactyls belonging to the family Xiphodontidae. It was endemic to Western Europe and lived from the middle Eocene up to the earliest Oligocene. Haplomeryx was first established as a genus by the German naturalist Max Schlosser in 1886 based on a molar tooth set from Quercy Phosphorites deposits. Three additional species were erected and classified to the xiphodontid genus while one other species, first recognized in 1822, was tentatively classified to it and remains unresolved in affinity.
Amphimeryx is an extinct genus of Palaeogene artiodactyls belonging to the Amphimerycidae that was endemic to the central region of western Europe and lived from the Late Eocene to the Early Oligocene. It was erected in 1848 by the French palaeontologist Auguste Pomel, who argued that its dentition was roughly similar to those of ruminants. Hence, the etymology of the genus name means "near ruminant," of which it derives from the ancient Greek words ἀμφί (near) and μήρυξ (ruminant). The type species A. murinus was previously recognized as a species of Dichobune by the French palaeontologist Georges Cuvier in 1822 before its eventual reclassification to its own genus. Two other species A. collotarsus and A. riparius are recognized also today although the former may be synonymous with A. murinus while the latter is known solely by a now-lost fossil specimen.
Pseudamphimeryx is an extinct genus of Palaeogene artiodactyls belonging to the Amphimerycidae that was endemic to the central region of western Europe and lived from the Middle to Late Eocene. It was first erected in 1910 by the Swiss palaeontologist Hans Georg Stehlin, who assigned to it multiple species and noted specific differences from another amphimerycid Amphimeryx. As of present, it is known by six species, although the validity of P. valdensis has been questioned while the earliest-appearing species P. schosseri has been suggested to not be an amphimerycid.
Axainamasia is an extinct genus of embrithopod that lived in Balkanatolia during the Palaeogene period. It contains the species A. sandersi.