Barytheriidae (meaning "heavy beasts") is an extinct family of primitive proboscideans that lived during the late Eocene and early Oligocene in North Africa and Oman. The Barytheriidae were the first large-sized proboscideans to appear in the fossil record and were characterized by a strong sexual dimorphism.[1][2]
Barytheriidae Temporal range:
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Barytherium molar | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Proboscidea |
Family: | †Barytheriidae C.W. Andrews, 1906 |
Genera | |
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References
edit- ^ Andrews, C.W. 1901. Über das Vorkommen von Proboscidiern in untertertiären Ablagerungen Aegyptens. Tageblatt des V Internationalen Zoologischen Kongresses, Berlin 6: 4–5.
- ^ E. R. Seiffert, S. Nasir, A. Al-Harthy, J. R. Groenke, B. P. Kraatz, N. J. Stevens, and A. R. Al-Sayigh. 2012. Diversity in the later Paleogene proboscidean radiation: a small barytheriid from the Oligocene of Dhofar Governorate, Sultanate of Oman. Naturwissenschaften 99:133-141