Skip to Content

Deciduous dentition and dental eruption sequence of Bothriogenys fraasi Project ID: 00000C224 Public
0 Media ยท Managed by: Duke Lemur Center Museum of Natural History

Paleogene anthracotheres are poorly documented from Afro-Arabian localities. This is due, in large part, to the fragmentary nature of the specimens that have been described. However, sediments in the Jebel Qatrani Formation, Fayum Depression, Egypt, preserve the richest anthracothere assemblages in all of Afro-Arabia. Unlike other samples, the Fayum collection includes many complete dentitions, skulls, and partial skeletons. Based on these extensive collections, this study provides the first description of the complete deciduous dentition and dental eruption sequence for the early Oligocene anthracothere Bothriogenys fraasi. A detailed discussion concerning the pattern and timing of dental growth in B. fraasi is provided, and the ontogenetic sequence documented for B. fraasi is compared with those available for suoids and hippos, the two extant groups currently considered as possible sister taxa to anthracotheres. Results show that anthracotheres and suoids share a more similar dental emergence pattern, and one that may be close to the primitive condition for artiodactyls, while hippos have a very different dental eruption sequence as a consequence of their highly divergent life history pattern. As a growing body of life history research indicates that taxa in close phylogenetic proximity can be expected to share features of their dental developmental pattern, this finding suggests a useful test of the hypothesis that Hippopotamide is demonstrably rooted among archaic bothriodont anthracotheres.

No records found.