Mesonychidae
(Redirected from
Mesonychid
)
| Mesonychidae Temporal range:
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| Harpagolestes immanis skull | |
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Life reconstruction of Harpagolestes macrocephalus
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | †Mesonychia |
| Family: | †Mesonychidae Cope 1880[1] |
| Genera | |
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See text | |
Mesonychidae (meaning "middle
artiodactyls.[2] Some researchers now consider the family a sister group either to whales or to artiodactyls, close relatives rather than direct ancestors. Other studies define Mesonychia as basal to all ungulates, occupying a position between Perissodactyla and Ferae. In this case, the resemblances to early whales would be due to convergent evolution among ungulate-like herbivores that developed adaptations related to hunting or eating meat.[3]
Description
The mesonychids were an unusual group of
condylarths with a specialized dentition featuring tri-cuspid upper molars and high-crowned lower molars with shearing surfaces. They had large heads with relatively long necks. Over time, the family evolved foot and leg adaptations for faster running, and jaw adaptations for greater bite force. Like the Paleocene family Arctocyonidae, mesonychids were once viewed as primitive carnivorans, and the diet of most genera probably included meat or fish. Various genera and species coexisted in some locations, as hunters and omnivores or scavengers.[4]
In contrast to arctocyonids, the mesonychids had only four digits furnished with hooves supported by narrow fissured end phalanges.
[5]
Evolutionary history
They first appeared in the Early Paleocene, undergoing numerous speciation events during the Paleocene, and Eocene. Mesonychids fared very poorly at the close of the Eocene epoch, with only one genus, Mongolestes,[6] surviving into the Early Oligocene epoch.
Mesonychids probably originated in
Bering land bridge
.
Taxonomy
Mesonychidae was named by Cope (1880). Its type genus is Mesonyx. It was assigned to Creodonta by Cope (1880); to Creodonta by Cope (1889); to Carnivora by Peterson (1919); to Mesonychia by Carroll (1988) and Zhou et al. (1995); and to Cete by Archibald (1998);[7] and to Mesonychia by Carroll (1988), Zhou et al. (1995), Geisler and McKenna (2007) and Spaulding et al. (2009).[8]
Classification
Family Mesonychidae
- Genus Ankalagon
- A. saurognathus
- Genus Dissacus
- D. argenteus
- D. europaeus
- D. indigenus
- D. magushanensis
- D. navajovius
- D. praenuntius
- D. rotundus
- D. serior
- D. serratus
- D. willwoodensis
- D. zanabazari
- D. zengi
- Genus Guilestes
- G. acares
- Genus Harpagolestes
- H. immanis
- H. koreanicus
- H. orientalis
- Genus Hessolestes
- H. ultimus
- Genus Hukoutherium
- H. ambigum
- H. shimemensis
- Genus Jiangxia
- J. chaotoensis
- Genus Mesonyx
- M. nuhetingensis
- M. obtusidens
- M. uintensis
- M. uqbulakensis
- Genus Mongolestes
- M. hadrodens
- M. huangheensis
- Genus Mongolonyx
- M. dolichognathus
- M. robustus
- Genus Pachyaena
- P. gigantea
- P. intermedia
- P. ossifraga
- P. gracilis
- Genus Sinonyx
- S. jiashanensis
- Genus Synoplotherium
- S. vorax
- Genus Yantanglestes
- Y. conexus
References
Notes
- ^ E. D. Cope 1880 in the Paleobiology Database. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
- ^ Wong, Kate (2002). "The Mammals that Conquered the Seas; New Fossils and DNA Analyses Elucidate the Remarkable History of Whales" (PDF). Scientific American. May 2002: 71–79 – via mtsac.edu.
- PMID 19774069.
- JSTOR 4523638.
- ^ Jordi & Anton 2002, p. 13
- ^ Jin 2005
- ^ J. D. Archibald. 1998. Archaic ungulates ("Condylarthra"). In C. M. Janis, K. M. Scott, and L. L. Jacobs (eds.), Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America 1:292-331
- ^ Mesonychidae (condylarth) in the Paleobiology Database. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
Cited sources
- Agusti, Jordi; Anton, Mauricio (2002). ISBN 0-231-11640-3.
- OCLC 45016526. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
- Jin, Xun (2005). "Mesonychids from Lushi Basin, Henan Province, China" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica (in Chinese and English). 43 (2): 151–164. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
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| Triisodontidae |  | |
| Mesonychidae | ||
| Hapalodectidae | ||