Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- PART I The Chronostratigraphy of the Uintan through Arikareean
- PART II Common Vertebrates of the White River Chronofauna
- 16 Testudines
- 17 Squamata
- 18 Ischyromyidae
- 19 Cylindrodontidae
- 20 Castoridae
- 21 Canidae
- 22 Nimravidae
- 23 Amphicyonidae
- 24 Small Arctoid and Feliform Camivorans
- 25 Merycoidodontinae and Miniochoerinae
- 26 Leptaucheniinae
- 27 Leptomerycidae
- 28 Camelidae
- 29 Hyracodontidae
- Summary
- Index
25 - Merycoidodontinae and Miniochoerinae
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- PART I The Chronostratigraphy of the Uintan through Arikareean
- PART II Common Vertebrates of the White River Chronofauna
- 16 Testudines
- 17 Squamata
- 18 Ischyromyidae
- 19 Cylindrodontidae
- 20 Castoridae
- 21 Canidae
- 22 Nimravidae
- 23 Amphicyonidae
- 24 Small Arctoid and Feliform Camivorans
- 25 Merycoidodontinae and Miniochoerinae
- 26 Leptaucheniinae
- 27 Leptomerycidae
- 28 Camelidae
- 29 Hyracodontidae
- Summary
- Index
Summary
ABSTRACT
This report is a phylogenetic revision of some members of the family Merycoidodontidae. Reinterpretation primarily scrutinizes probable intraspecific morphologic variation of skulls and mandibles with special attention to post-mortem deformation, and investigation of 18 measurements made uniformly on all suitable specimens. We conclude that the subfamily Merycoidodontinae (late early or middle Chadronian to early Arikareean) contains two mesocephalic genera, Merycoidodon and Mesoreodon, Merycoidodon (middle Chadronian through Whitneyan, about 7 million years) contains four species, including one newly described from the middle Chadronian of the Vieja, Trans-Pecos Texas. Merycoidodon is ancestral to Eporeodontinae (later Whitney an–early Arikareean), and Mesoreodon (latest Whitneyan or earliest Arikareean). Mesoreodon lasted for about 3.5 million years, and contains two species. Mesoreodon is ancestral to the Promerycochoerinae (middle–late Arikareean) and the Merycochoerinae (middle Arikareean–middle Hemingfordian).
The Miniochoerinae contain one genus, Miniochoerus. Four of the five species of Miniochoerus form a single series that extends from the middle Chadronian to the earlier Whitneyan, approximately 5 million years. Two species of Miniochoerus coexisted in the early Orellan. Miniochoerinae are not ancestral to any other group.
INTRODUCTION
Some of the commonest fossil mammals in the Tertiary beds of North America are oreodonts. Joseph Leidy (1848) described the first species, Merycoidodon culbertsoni, and other studies by Leidy were followed quickly by those of O. C. Marsh and E. D. Cope. At the turn of the century, Earl Douglass studied oreodonts from Montana, and J. C. Merriam and C. Stock, among others, reported species from California.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Terrestrial Eocene-Oligocene Transition in North America , pp. 498 - 573Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996
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