Paracolodon

Paracolodon Temporal range: Middle - Late Eocene
Life Restoration
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Perissodactyla
Family:	† Helaletidae
Genus:	† Paracolodon Matthew & Granger, 1925
Type species
†Paracolodon inceptus Matthew & Granger, 1925
Species
P. curtus P. fissus P. inceptus

Paracolodon is an extinct genus of tapiroid perissodactyl belonging to the family Helaletidae. Fossils have been found in Mongolia and the Inner Mongolia region of China.^{[ citation needed ]}

Taxonomy

Matthew and Granger (1925) described the nominal tapiroid taxa Colodon inceptus and Paracolodon curtus from Eocene-age deposits in East Asia. ^[1] Radinsky (1965) recognized two nominal species as identical and synonymized Paracolodon with Colodon inceptus. ^[2] Dashzeveg and Hooker (1997) assigned the nominal tapiroid species "Helalestes" fissus to Colodon, as C. fissus, based on similarities with inceptus. ^[3] On the basis of new material from the Erlian Basin in Inner Mongolia, Bai et al. (2017) recognized Paracolodon as a distinct genus from Colodon, meaning that P. fissus is a referred species of Paracolodon. ^[4]

References

1. Matthew, W.D., and W. Granger. 1925. New ungulates from the Ardyn Obo Formation of Mongolia with faunal list and remarks on correlation. American Museum Novitates 195: 1–12.
2. Radinsky, L.B. 1965a. Early Tertiary Tapiroidea of Asia. Bulletin of American Museum of Natural History 129 (2): 181–263.
3. Dashzeveg, D., and J.J. Hooker. 1997. New ceratomorph perissodactyls (Mammalia) from the Middle and Late Eocene of Mongolia: their implications for phylogency and dating. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 120: 105–138.
4. Bai B, Wang Y Q, Mao F Y et al., 2017. New material of Eocene Helaletidae (Perissodactyla, Tapiroidea) from the Irdin Manha Formation of the Erlian Basin, Inner Mongolia, China and comments on related localities of the Huheboerhe Area. Am Mus Novit, 3878: 1–44.