''Deperetella'' is an extinct genus of
deperetellid perissodactyls from Middle to Late
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...
of
Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
.
[ The genus was defined in 1925 by ]W. D. Matthew
William Diller Matthew FRS (February 19, 1871 – September 24, 1930) was a vertebrate paleontologist who worked primarily on mammal fossils, although he also published a few early papers on mineralogy, petrological geology, one on botany, one on ...
and Walter W. Granger, who named it after French paleontologist Charles Depéret
Charles Jean Julien Depéret (25 June 1854 – 18 May 1929) was a French geologist and paleontologist. He was a member of the French Academy of Sciences, the Société géologique de France .type species
In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...
is ''Deperetella cristata''.[
]
Description
The front-root teeth (premolars) are longer than the posterior-root teeth (molars
The molars or molar teeth are large, flat tooth, teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammal, mammals. They are used primarily to comminution, grind food during mastication, chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, '' ...
), there are well-developed hypolophides on P3-P4, and the forelimbs are three-toed. It differs from ''Teleolophus
''Teleolophus'' is an extinct genus of herbivorous mammals related to tapirs that flourished in the Eocene of Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 milli ...
'' in the size of the molars.[ Postcranial skeleton of ''Deperetella'' shares many similarities with that of ''Teleolophus'', in particular: long and slender limbs, relatively elongated and narrow lunar with a slightly concave medial edge of the radial facet, ]fibula
The fibula (: fibulae or fibulas) or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. ...
reduced or fused with the tibia
The tibia (; : tibiae or tibias), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two Leg bones, bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outsi ...
, three functional fingers on the limbs.
Taxonomy
The genus '' Diplolophodon'', erected by Zdansky (1930) based on an upper dentition from the Heti Formation, China, was defined by Radinsky (1965) as a junior synonym
In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently.
...
of ''Deperetella''.[ Tsubamoto ''et al''. (2000)][ and later works ''Diplolophodon'' is also considered as a synonym of ''Deperetella''.][ However, it recovered as a valid genus in Deperetellidae family in a work of Bai Bin (2023).]Myanmar
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...
was assigned to the new genus '' Bahinolophus'' in 2005.[
]
References
Deperetellidae
Eocene Perissodactyla
Eocene mammals of Asia
Fossil taxa described in 1925
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