Dinocerata (from the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
(), "terrible", and (), "horn") is an
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
order of
plant-eating hoofed mammals with horns and protuberant canine teeth.
Classification
A 2015 phylogenetic study recovered Dinocerata as closely related to ''
Carodnia'', making them part of the
Euungulata
Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraffes, ca ...
assemblage.
Taxonomy and phylogeny
Most experts place the known genera of Dinocerata within one family, Uintatheriidae, and split it into two subfamilies, Uintatheriinae and Gobiatheriinae. Some experts prefer to split Uintatheriidae into three families, with ''Gobiatherium'' placed in the
monogeneric
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...
family Gobiatheriidae, the other Eocene genera in Uintatheriidae proper, and the Paleocene genera ''Prodinoceras'' and ''Probathyopsis'' placed in the family "Prodinoceratidae".
*
Laurasiatheria
Laurasiatheria ("laurasian beasts") is a superorder of placental mammals that groups together true insectivores ( eulipotyphlans), bats ( chiropterans), carnivorans, pangolins ( pholidotes), even-toed ungulates ( artiodactyls), odd-toed ungulat ...
**
Ungulatomorpha?
**Order Dinocerata
***Family
Uintatheriidae
****Subfamily Gobiatheriinae
*****''
Gobiatherium
''Gobiatherium'' (meaning "Beast of the Gobi Desert") was one of the last Uintatheres, from the Mid Eocene of Mongolia. Unlike its North American cousins, ''Uintatherium'' or ''Eobasileus'', ''Gobiatherium'' lacked knob-like horns, or even fan ...
''
****Subfamily Uintatheriinae
*****''
Prodinoceras
''Prodinoceras'' ("Before Terrible Horns") is the earliest known uintathere genus, which lived in the late Paleocene of Mongolia. It was a relatively small uintathere, reaching in length. It is also regarded as the most basal uintathere, as, al ...
''
*****''
Probathyopsis''
*****''
Bathyopsis
''Bathyopsis'' is an extinct genus of uintathere. It lived in North America during the Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Peri ...
''
*****''
Uintatherium
''Uintatherium'' ("Beast of the Uinta Mountains") is an extinct genus of herbivorous mammal that lived during the Eocene epoch. Two species are currently recognized: ''U. anceps'' from the United States during the Early to Middle Eocene (56–38 ...
''
*****''
Eobasileus
''Eobasileus cornutus'' ("horned dawn-king") was a prehistoric species of dinocerate mammal.
Description
About long, and standing some tall at the shoulder, with a weight estimated to be around , ''Eobasilius'' was the largest uintathere ...
''
*****''
Tetheopsis
''Tetheopsis'' is an extinct genus of Uintatheriidae.
References
Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope
Dinoceratans
Fossil taxa described in 1885
Prehistoric placental genera
{{Paleo-mammal-stub ...
''
References
{{Authority control
*
Eocene extinctions
Paleocene first appearances
Fossil taxa described in 1872
Mammal orders