Toxodon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Toxodon
Fossil range: Late Pliocene to Late Pleistocene

Toxodon platensis

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	†Notoungulata
Family:	†Toxodontidae
Subfamily:	†Toxodontinae
Genus:	†Toxodon Owen, 1837

Type species

†Toxodon platensis

Species

†T. chapadmalensis
†T. darwini
†T. ensenadense
†T. platensis

Skeleton of Toxodon.

Toxodon ("Archer's bow teeth") is a large genus of extinct South American ungulate, ecologically similar to the hippopotamus, that lived in the late Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs in South America. Toxodon was among the few notoungulates to survive the Great American Interchange, and is presumed to have died out due to human predation and/or climatic changes during the Pleistocene. Its fossils were first studied by Charles Darwin on his voyage on the Beagle. It is speculated that these animals lived very much like hippopotamuses in South America, and were almost certainly hunted by Smilodon populator.

T. platensis was a large squat herbivore (about 2.75 m (9 feet) long and 1.5 m (5 feet) high) with the general appearance of a rhinoceros.

[edit] In Popular Culture

Toxodon appeared in episode 4 of Prehistoric Park. They are seen almost immediately after Nigel Marvin arrives in South America. He watches them wallow in a pond and reads Charles Darwin's notebook, unaware of a charging toxodont. He manages to escape just in time. He later watches a toxodont being attacked by a Smilodon and killed. No toxodonts are present on Nigel's second visit.

[edit] References

Barry Cox, Colin Harrison, R.J.G. Savage, and Brian Gardiner. (1999): The Simon & Schuster Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures: A Visual Who's Who of Prehistoric Life. Simon & Schuster.