''Gobiatherium'' (meaning "Beast of the

Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert (, , ; ) is a large, cold desert and grassland region in North China and southern Mongolia. It is the sixth-largest desert in the world. The name of the desert comes from the Mongolian word ''gobi'', used to refer to all of th ...

") was one of the last uintatheres, from the Mid

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 Mongolia. Unlike its

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

n cousins, ''

Uintatherium ''Uintatherium'' ("Beast of the Uinta Mountains") is an extinct genus of herbivorous dinoceratan mammal that lived during the Eocene epoch. Two species are currently recognized: ''U. anceps'' from the United States during the Early to Middle Eoc ...

'' or '' Eobasileus'', ''Gobiatherium'' lacked knob-like horns, or even fang-like tusks. Instead, it had enlarged

cheekbone In the human skull, the zygomatic bone (from ), also called cheekbone or malar bone, is a paired irregular bone, situated at the upper and lateral part of the face and forming part of the lateral wall and floor of the orbit (anatomy), orbit, of t ...

s and an almost spherical snout. Because of the noticeable lack of many diagnostic uintathere features (the horns and tusks), the genus is placed within its own subfamily, "Gobiatheriinae", though some experts prefer to rank it as the family "Gobiatheriidae".

References

*Cheng Jie & Ma Aneheng: ''New mammalian materials from the Eocene of the Liguanqiao basin.'' Vertebrata PalAsiatica 28, 1990, S. 228–244. * McKenna, M.C. & Bell, S.K. Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. 1997, Columbia University Press, New York. *Spencer George Lucas: ''Gobiatherium (Mammalia: Dinocerata) from the Middle Eocene of Asia: Taxonomy and biochronological Significance.'' Paläontologische Zeitschrift 74 (4), 2001, S. 591–600. Dinoceratans Eocene genus extinctions Fossils of Mongolia Fossil taxa described in 1932 Prehistoric placental genera {{paleo-mammal-stub