''Gobiatherium'' (meaning "Beast of the

Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert ( Chinese: 戈壁 (沙漠), Mongolian: Говь (ᠭᠣᠪᠢ)) () is a large desert or brushland region in East Asia, and is the sixth largest desert in the world. Geography The Gobi measures from southwest to northeast ...

") was one of the last

Uintathere Uintatheriidae is a family of extinct ungulate mammals that includes ''Uintatherium''. Uintatheres belong to the order Dinocerata, one of several extinct orders of primitive hoofed mammals that are sometimes united in the Condylarthra. Uintath ...

s, from the Mid

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 Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

of Mongolia. Unlike its North American cousins, ''

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 ...

'' or ''

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 uintather ...

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

cheekbone In the human skull, the zygomatic bone (from grc, ζῠγόν, zugón, yoke), also called cheekbone or malar bone, is a paired irregular bone which articulates with the maxilla, the temporal bone, the sphenoid bone and the frontal bone. It ...

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