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Nesodon
Temporal range: Early Miocene (Deseadan-Friasian)
~23.03–15.5 Ma
Nesodon imbricatus skeleton
Nesodon imbricatus skull
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: †Notoungulata
Family: †Toxodontidae
Subfamily: †Nesodontinae
Genus: †Nesodon
Owen, 1846
Type species
†Nesodon imbricatus
Species[1]
  • N. conspurcatus Ameghino 1887
  • N. cornutus
  • N. imbricatus Owen 1846
  • N. taweretus Forasiepi et al. 2014
Synonyms[2]

Nesodon ("island tooth")[3] is a genus of Miocene mammal belonging to the extinct order Notoungulata which inhabited southern South America during the Late Oligocene to Miocene living from 29.0 to 16.3 Ma and existed for approximately 12.7 million years. [4] It had a relatively large size, weighing up to 554 kg (1221 lbs) and reaching 1.5 m in height.[5]

Taxonomy

N. imbricatus restoration by Charles R. Knight, 1905

Nesodon was named by Owen (1846). It was assigned to Toxodontidae by Carroll (1988). It was an early member of the family Toxodontidae, which included the well-known Pleistocene genus Toxodon. Like almost all toxodontids, Nesodon was endemic to South America. In particular, fossils of Nesodon are known from late early Miocene (Santacrucian SALMA) deposits of Argentina and Chile.[6]

Three species of Nesodon are recognized including a larger species, N. imbricatus, and a smaller species, N. conspurcatus.[7] A poorly known and possibly invalid third species, N. cornutus, was similar to N. imbricatus but may have had a small horn on its head. All species of Nesodon were larger than species of the contemporary toxodontid Adinotherium.

The dentition of Nesodon shows features typical of living grazing (grass-eating) mammals, but a study of wear on the enamel of N. imbricatus suggests that it was a browser (leaf eater) that may have supplemented its diet with fruit or bark.[8]

Classification

Promegatherium nanum and Nesodon.

In 2014, a study identifying a new species of Nesodon, N. taweretus, resolved the families phylogenetic relations, deriving the cladogram shown below:[9]

Pampahippus arenalesi

Rhynchippus spp.

Scarritia canquelensis

Leonitinia gaudri

Toxodontidae

Proadinotherium leptognathum

Adinotherium spp.

Nesodon taweretus

Nesodon imbricatus

Palyeidodon obtusum

Hyperoxotodon speciosus

Andinotoxodon bolivariensis

Dinotoxodon paranensis

Toxodon platensis

Gyrinodon quassus

Ocnerotherium intermedium

Hoffstetterius imperator

Distribution

Fossils of Nesodon have been found in:[10]

References

  1. ^ Croft et al. (2004) pp. 4–5
  2. ^ McKenna and Bell (1997), p. 460
  3. ^ Palmer (1904) p. 457.
  4. ^ Paleobiology Database: Nesodon imbricatus, Basic info.[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ D.Patterson, Bruce (2012) Bones, Clones, and Biomes: The History and Geography of Recent Neotropical Mammals p.92
  6. ^ Croft et al. (2004), p. 5.
  7. ^ Croft et al. (2004), pp. 7–8.
  8. ^ Townsend & Croft (2008) p. 225.
  9. ^ Forasiepi, A. A. M.; Cerdeño, E.; Bond, M.; Schmidt, G. I.; Naipauer, M.; Straehl, F. R.; Martinelli, A. N. G.; Garrido, A. C.; Schmitz, M. D.; Crowley, J. L. (2014). "New toxodontid (Notoungulata) from the Early Miocene of Mendoza, Argentina" (PDF). Paläontologische Zeitschrift. 89 (3): 611–634. doi:10.1007/s12542-014-0233-5. S2CID 129293436.
  10. ^ Nesodon at Fossilworks.org

Bibliography


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