Armania (mammal)
Extinct genus of mammals
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Armania is an extinct genus of rhinocerotoid of disputed affinities that lived in East Asia during the Late Eocene. A single species is recognized, A. asiana, known from the Ergilin Dzo Formation in Mongolia. Armania is known from fragmentary skull material and has been classified in various positions within Rhinocerotoidea. Recent research generally favors Armania as either an amynodont or a hyracodont.
| Armania | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Placentalia |
| Order: | Perissodactyla |
| Superfamily: | Rhinocerotoidea |
| Genus: | †Armania Gabunia & Dashzeveg, 1988 |
| Species: | †A. asiana |
| Binomial name | |
| †Armania asiana Gabunia & Dashzeveg, 1988 | |
Research history
Armania asiana is known from the Late Eocene Ergilin Dzo Formation in Mongolia.[2][3] The genus and species were described by Gabunia Leonide Gabunia and Demberelyin Dashzeveg in 1988, with additional descriptive and systematic work being published by Dashzeveg in 1991.[4] The only fossils known of Armania are fragments of upper jaws and isolated teeth.[4]
The name Armania is derived from the Mongolian word for rhinoceros, arman.[4] The species name asiana is derived from the Latin asianus ("Asian").[4]
Description
Armania was evidently a specialized rhinocerotoid, showcasing some derived features. Armania had a much reduced facial region; the front edge of the orbits (eye sockets) of Armania was directly above its second upper premolars and tt had a relatively shallow nasal incisions, which nevertheless reached very nearly all the way to the orbits.[4]
Armania had hypsodont (high-crowned) teeth.[4] The canines were well-developed, round in cross-section, and directed slightly downwards and forwards.[4]
Classification
Dashzeveg classified Armania as a hyracodont, though did so at a time when the paraceratheres were also believed to be part of that family. He specifically classified it as an "indricotheriine hyracodontid"[4] (i.e. what is presently understood as the family Paraceratheriidae). Dashzeveg believed Armania to be a descendant of Forstercooperia.[4] In 1996, Dashzeveg erected a new hyracodont subfamily, "Alloceropinae", in which he included Armania, Eggysodon, Forstercooperia, Juxia, and Tenisia.[5]
Later paleontologists have disagreed with Dashzeveg's classification of Armania, but opinions are divided over its correct position. Koenigswald, Holbrook & Rose (2011) and Lopatin (2020) classified Armania as an amynodont.[2][6] Bai et al. (2020) and Tsubamoto et al. (2022) classified Armania as a hyracodont.[1][3]