Stylinodon

Stylinodon Temporal range: 53.4–39.7  Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N early to middle Eocene
life restoration of Stylinodon mirus
skull of Stylinodon mirus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	† Taeniodonta
Family:	† Stylinodontidae
Subfamily:	† Stylinodontinae
Tribe:	† Stylinodontini Marsh, 1875 [1]
Genus:	† Stylinodon Marsh, 1874 [2]
Type species
†Stylinodon mirus Marsh, 1874
Synonyms [3]
synonyms of species: S. mirus: Calamodon cylindrifer(Cope, 1881) [4] Stylinodon cylindrifer(Wortman, 1896) [5] Stylinodon inexplicatus(Schoch & Lucas, 1981) [6]

Stylinodon ("tooth with pilar-like fibers") ^[7] is an extinct genus of taeniodonts from extinct tribe Stylinodontini within subfamily Stylinodontinae and family Stylinodontidae, that lived in North America from early to middle Eocene. ^{[8] [9] [10] [11]}

With a weight between 54.9 kg (121 lb) and 109 kg (240 lb), ^[8] and length of 1.30 m (4 ft 3 in), ^[8] it had similar size to a pig. The skull suggests it had a blunt face, and a very short snout. Its canines had developed into huge, incisor-like root-less teeth. Stylinodon's molars were covered in enamel and continued growing throughout its life. Most likely, it fed on rough roots and tubers. ^[12]

Phylogeny

Placentalia	Atlantogenata Boreoeutheria † Palaeoryctida † Ambilestes † Procerberidae † Alveugena † Taeniodonta † Schowalteria † Conoryctidae † Onychodectidae † Stylinodontoidea † Stylinodontidae † Wortmaniinae † Stylinodontinae † Psittacotheriini † Ectoganini †Stylinodontini †Stylinodon †Stylinodon mirus

References

1. Marsh, O. C. (1875.) "New Order of Eocene Mammals." American Journal of Science 9:221
2. O. C. Marsh (1874.) "Notice of new Tertiary mammals. III." American Journal of Science, series 3 7(41):531-534
3. J. Alroy (2002.) "Synonymies and reidentifications of North American fossil mammals."
4. E. D. Cope (1881). ""On the Vertebrata of the Wind River Eocene beds of Wyoming."". Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey. 6 (1): 183–202.
5. Wortman, J. L. (1896.) "The Ganodonta and their relationship to the Edentata." Bulletin of the AMNH; vol. 9, article 6
6. Schoch, R. M.; Lucas, S. G. (1981). ""The systematics of Stylinodon, a middle to late Eocene taeniodont (Mammalia) from western North America."". J. Vertebr. Paleontol. 1: 175–83. doi:10.1080/02724634.1981.10011890. JSTOR   4522849.
7. Palmer, Theodore Sherman (1904). Index Generum Mammalium: A List of the Genera and Families of Mammals. U.S. Government Printing Office.
8. Schoch, Robert M. (1986.) "Systematics, functional morphology and macroevolution of the extinct mammalian order Taeniodonta." Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, (42).
9. McKenna, Malcolm C.; Bell, Susan K. (1997). Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN   978-0-231-11012-9 . Retrieved 16 March 2015.
10. S. G. Lucas, R. M. Schoch, and T. E. Williamson (1998.) "Taeniodonta". In C. M. Janis, K. M. Scott, and L. L. Jacobs (eds.), "Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America, Volume 1: Terrestrial Carnivores, Ungulates, and Ungulate like Mammals", Cambridge University Press, 703 pages
11. Williamson, T. E.; Brusatte, S. L. (2013). Viriot, Laurent (ed.). "New Specimens of the Rare Taeniodont Wortmania (Mammalia: Eutheria) from the San Juan Basin of New Mexico and Comments on the Phylogeny and Functional Morphology of "Archaic" Mammals". PLOS ONE. 8 (9) e75886. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...875886W. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0075886 . PMC   3786969 . PMID   24098738.
12. Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 237. ISBN   1-84028-152-9.

External links

• Photograph of skull at Utah Field House of Natural History Museum, at Vernal, Utah