Eritherium

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Eritreum.

Eritherium
Temporal range:
Ma
↓
Jaw of Eritherium azzouzorum
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Genus: †Eritherium
Gheerbrant, 2009
Species:
†E. azzouzorum
Binomial name
†Eritherium azzouzorum
Gheerbrant, 2009

Eritherium is an

Ouled Abdoun basin (early Thanetian age), Morocco. It lived about 60 million years ago. It was first named by Emmanuel Gheerbrant in 2009 and the type species is Eritherium azzouzorum. Eritherium is the oldest, smallest and most primitive known elephant
relative.

Description

The

molars (M1-3)). The piece is about 6 inches long, 5 inches wide and just over 3 inches high. In addition, the fossils include 15 more objects including the skull bones (frontal and nasal bones), lower jaw fragments and teeth and the upper and lower jaw.[1] It was about 20 cm tall at the shoulder and weighed about 5–6 kg.[2]

Generally, Eritherium shared similarities in the structure of their teeth with other

diastema
between the canine tooth on the front and back teeth. This primitive mammalian dentition is unique among Proboscideans.

The molars were generally

lophodont teeth. The premolars had only one (lower jaw) or two (in the maxilla) cusps. The first incisor is relatively large and asymmetric and already showed signs of reduction. These facts link Eritherium with other early Proboscideans. Another primitive characteristic is the short symphysis
of the mandible.

The reconstruction of the upper portion of the skull showed that the eye socket was relatively far forward in the skull. Most other early Paenungulata had an orbit significantly shifted to the rear position of the skull.

Systematics

Eritherium is the oldest known representative of the

Hyracoidea) they form the group Paenungulata. The great age and location of Eritherium support the hypothesis that paenungulates originated in Africa and diversified rapidly in the Paleocene.[1]

Eritherium in cladogram after Tabuce et al., 2019:[3]

 Proboscidea 

History of discovery

The findings of Eritherium come from

elasmobranchs (sharks and rays). This places the findings in a geological time ranging from 61.1 to 57.8 million years ago. The genus was named by Emmanuel Gheerbrant (2009). The name Eritherium comes from the Greek words "eρυ" (eri: old) and "θηρίον" (therion: animal), while the species name azzouzorum honors the residents of the village of Ouled Azzouz, near where most of the fossils were discovered.[1]

References

  1. ^
    PMID 19549873
    .
  2. doi:10.4202/app.00136.2014
    .
  3. ^ Rodolphe Tabuce, Raphaël Sarr, Sylvain Adnet, Renaud Lebrun, Fabrice Lihoreau, Jeremy E. Martin, Bernard Sambou, Mustapha Thiam und Lionel Hautier: Filling a gap in the proboscidean fossil record: a new genus from the Lutetian of Senegal. Journal of Paleontology, 2019, doi:10.1017/jpa.2019.98
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