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Falcatodon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Falcatodon
Temporal range: 33.9–30.0 Ma
Early Oligocene
illustration of Falcatodon schlosseri
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Hyaenodonta
Superfamily: Hyainailouroidea
Family: Hyainailouridae
Subfamily: Hyainailourinae
Tribe: Hyainailourini
Genus: Falcatodon
Morales & Pickford, 2017[1]
Type species
Falcatodon schlosseri
Holroyd, 1999[2]
Synonyms
synonyms of species:
  • F. schlosseri:
    • Metapterodon schlosseri (Holroyd, 1999)

Falcatodon ("curved tooth") is an extinct genus of hyainailourid hyaenodonts of the subfamily Hyainailourinae, from the Early Oligocene (Rupelian) of the Faiyum Oasis depression in Egypt.[1]

Description

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Morales and Pickford (2017, p. 344) diagnose Falcatodon as follows: "Medium sized Hyainailourinae, differing from Metapterodon by the reduction of the protocone in the upper molars (M1 – M2), which is located in a very anterior position. It differs from Hyainailouros by the more sectorial morphology of the upper molars, with more advanced fusion of the paracone-metacone with, nevertheless, a groove separating the cusps visible in the M1. Lower molars sectorial with reduced talonid and without a metaconid. It differs from Isohyaenodon, Sectisodon and Exiguodon, by the lesser reduction of the protocone in the upper molars which, above all, retain a stretched out subtriangular occlusal outline."[1]

Classification and phylogeny

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Taxonomy

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Falcatodon was originally described as a new species of Metapterodon, M. schlosseri by Holroyd (1999), who nonetheless recognized that Eocene and Oligocene hyainailourids he assigned to Metapterodon might prove generically distinct. Subsequent study demonstrated that Falcatodon is not only distinct from Metapterodon but also closely related to Isohyaenodon.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Jorge Morales; Martin Pickford (2017). "New hyaenodonts (Ferae, Mammalia) from the Early Miocene of Napak (Uganda), Koru (Kenya) and Grillental (Namibia)" (PDF). Fossil Imprint. 73 (3–4): 332–359. doi:10.2478/if-2017-0019. S2CID 31350436.
  2. ^ P. A. Holroyd (1999.) "New Pterodontinae (Creodonta: Hyaenodontidae) from the late Eocene-early Oligocene Jebel Qatrani Formation, Fayum province, Egypt." PaleoBios 19(2):1-18