Numidotherium

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Numidotherium Fossil range: Eocene
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Proboscidea Family: Numidotheriidae Genus: Numidotherium Jaeger, 1986
Species
N. koholense Jaeger (in Mahboubi et al.), 1986 N. savagei Court, 1995

Numidotherium ("Numidia beast") is an extinct genus of early proboscidean discovered in 1984, that lived during the Eocene of North Africa.

The type species, N. koholense is known from an almost complete skeleton from the site of El Kohol, southern Algeria dating from the early/middle Eocene period. The animal had the size and the appearance of a modern tapir. Its appearance were more slender and more plantigrade than the elephants', its closest modern relative.

A new species, N. savagei has been discovered in 1995 in late Eocene deposits of Dor el Talha, Libya, together with another primitive proboscidean, Barytherium grave. N. savagei may be a synonym of N. koholense.

[edit] References

• Mahboubi, M., Ameur, R., Crochet, J.−Y., and Jaeger, J.−J. 1986. El Kohol(Saharan Atlas, Algeria): A new Eocene mammals locality in North Western Africa. Palaeontographica 192 (1/3): 15–49.
• Court, N. 1995. A new species of Numidotherium (Mammalia: Proboscidea) from the Eocene of Libya and the early phylogeny of the Proboscidea. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 15: 650–671.