Duerotherium
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Duerotherium Temporal range: Middle Eocene | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | †Anoplotheriidae |
| Subfamily: | †Anoplotheriinae |
| Genus: | †Duerotherium Cuesta & Badiola, 2009 |
| Species: | †D. sudrei |
| Binomial name | |
| †Duerotherium sudrei Cuesta & Badiola, 2009 | |
Duerotherium is an extinct genus of artiodactyl that lived during the Middle Eocene and is only known from the Iberian Peninsula. The genus is a member of the family Anoplotheriidae and the subfamily Anoplotheriinae, and contains one species, D. sudrei. Like other anoplotheriids, it was endemic to Western Europe. The genus was described based on a left fragment of a maxilla (upper jaw) from the Mazaterón Formation of the Duero Basin, from which its name derives, in 2009. Its dentition is mostly typical of the Anoplotheriinae but differs from related genera in the elongated and triangular third upper premolar and traits of the molars. It is thought to have been part of an endemic fauna that evolved in the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Eocene, when climates were subtropical.
Classification
In 2009, Spanish palaeontologists Miguel-Ángel Cuesta and Ainara Badiola described a newly erected anoplotheriine genus from the Mazaterón Formation near the village of Mazaterón, which are located within the Duero Basin. The genus and type species Duerotherium sudrei was created based on a fragment of a left fragment of a maxilla with a dental series of P3-M3 (specimen STUS 11562), which was deposited in the "Sala de las Tortugas" of the University of Salamanca. The genus etymology derives from the Duero Basin for where the fossil was described plus the Greek θήρ/therium meaning "beast" or "wild animal". The etymology of the species name was dedicated in honour of Jean Sudre for his studies on endemic European Palaeogene artiodactyls.[1]
Duerotherium belongs to the Anoplotheriidae, a Palaeogene artiodactyl family endemic to Western Europe that lived from the Middle Eocene to the Early Oligocene (~44 to 30 Ma, possible earliest record at ~48 Ma). The exact evolutionary origin of anoplotheriids remain uncertain, but they were exclusively distributed in Europe when it was an archipelago that was isolated by seaway barriers from other regions such as Balkanatolia and the rest of eastern Eurasia. The Anoplotheriidae's relations with other artiodactyl groups are not well-resolved.[2][3]
The Anoplotheriidae consists of two subfamilies, the Dacrytheriinae and Anoplotheriinae, and Duerotherium belongs to the latter. The Dacrytheriinae is the older subfamily and first appeared in the Middle Eocene (in the Mammal Palaeogene zones unit MP13, possibly up to MP10), although some authors consider them to be a separate family, as Dacrytheriidae.[1][4][5] Anoplotheriines made their first appearances by the late Eocene (MP15-MP16; ~41–40 Ma) with Duerotherium and Robiatherium. After a significant gap of anoplotheriines in MP17a-MP17b, the derived anoplotheriids Anoplotherium and Diplobune made their first appearances by MP18, although their exact origins remain unknown.[1]
In 2022, Weppe published a phylogenetic analysis in his PhD thesis regarding Palaeogene artiodactyl lineages, focusing on the endemic European families. This phylogenetic tree is the first to include all anoplotheriid genera, although not all individual species were included. In this tree, the Anoplotheriidae, Mixtotheriidae, and Cainotherioidea form a clade based on synapomorphic dental traits (newly evolved tooth features they have in common). Ephelcomenus, Duerotherium, and Robiatherium form a clade within Anoplotheriidae.[6]
