Astrapotherium
| Astrapotherium | ||||||||||||
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Astrapotherium magnum |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Oligocene to Lower Miocene | ||||||||||||
| 29 to 16.3 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Astrapotherium | ||||||||||||
| Burmeister , 1879 | ||||||||||||
Astrapotherium is an extinct genus of herbivorous mammals that was foundin South America from the Upper Oligocene to the Lower Miocene .
features
Astrapotherium resembled a tapir outwardly , but was not closely related to it, but belongs to the South American ungulates , a group of mammals that is now completely extinct. Astrapotherium had an elongated body with a short neck and was about ten feet long. The shoulder height could be 1.4 meters. The head was large, 50 to 65 cm long, with a short nasal bone and was equipped with large nostrils offset on the top of the head, to which a short trunk was probably attached. Upper incisors were missing, the lower ones could have bitten against a horn plate in the upper jaw. The canines of the upper and lower jaw were clearly defined, those of the upper jaw larger than those of the lower jaw. The two premolars were small, the three molars were of the lophodontic type and increased in size from front to back.
Astrapotherium had five toes on the forefoot and hind foot . In front he only put his toes on ( toe walker ), behind the whole foot ( sole walker ).
Way of life
Anatomy and discovery sites of fossils of astrapotherium suggest that he was a herbivorous lowland, riparian and swamp dwellers.
source
- Thomas S. Kemp: The Origin & Evolution of Mammals. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005. ISBN 0198507615
- Elmer S. Riggs: A skeleton of Astrapotherium. Published 1935 by Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. online at Open Library
Web links
- The Paleobiology Database: Astrapotherium