Anthracobunidae

Anthracobunidae Temporal range: Early Eocene–Middle Eocene PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Cranial elements of anthracobunids
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Perissodactyla[1]
Family:	†Anthracobunidae Wells and Gingerich, 1983
Genera[1][note 1]
†Anthracobune †Jozaria †Obergfellia

Parsimony analyses consensus tree for phylogeny of anthracobunids from cladistic study by Cooper et al. (2014),^[1] showing them (near the bottom) placed within Perissodactyla next to Desmostylia.

Anthracobunidae is an extinct family of stem perissodactyls that lived in the early to middle Eocene period. They were originally considered to be a paraphyletic family of primitive proboscideans^[3] possibly ancestral to the Moeritheriidae and the desmostylians. The family has also thought to be ancestral to the Sirenia.^[4]

They superficially resemble the Moeritheriidae in both size and cheek tooth morphology, but lack their characteristic tusks. They were relatively small, ranging in size from 1 to 2 m in length. They are known only from fragmentary remains (mainly teeth) from Eocene deposits of the northwestern part of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. Recently excavated fossils with well-preserved jaws and teeth demonstrate that these animals were actually perissodactyls.^[1][5] The anthracobunids were probably amphibious and lived in marshy environments. Analyses of stable isotopes and long bone geometry suggest most anthracobunids fed on terrestrial vegetation, but lived near water.^[1] The same cladistic analysis that prompted their new placement also transfers the semiaquatic marine desmostylians, another putative non-African afrotherian group, to Perissodactyla close to anthracobunids.^[1]

Notes

References