Palaeosyops
| Palaeosyops Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Palaeosyops robustus skeleton | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Perissodactyla |
| Family: | †Brontotheriidae |
| Genus: | †Palaeosyops |
| Species | |
| |
Palaeosyops is a genus of small brontothere which lived during the early to middle Eocene.[1]
Biology and size
It was about the size of small cattle,[2] with a weight of 600–800 kg depending on the species.[3]
These animals are commonly found in Wyoming fossil beds primarily as fossilized teeth. From all of the species of this animal, it is concluded that P. major was the largest, reaching the size of a small cow. Its describer, Joseph Leidy, erroneously thought that Palaeosyops consumed both plants and animals after examining the fang-like canines. However, it is now known that all brontotheres were strict herbivores, and that many, if not most genera of hornless brontotheres had fang-like canines, possibly for both defense from predators, and intraspecific competition.
Predators
Because of its small size,[4] it was most definitely prey to the large crocodilians of the Bridger Formation, such as Boverisuchus and Borealosuchus.[citation needed]
References
- ^ "Fossilworks: Palaeosyops".
- ^ "Thunder horses - Brontotheres by artbyjrc on DeviantArt". www.deviantart.com. Retrieved 2022-01-27.
- ^ "Paleobiology Database: Palaeosyops robustus". Archived from the original on 2012-12-10. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
- ^ "Thunder horses - Brontotheres by artbyjrc on DeviantArt". www.deviantart.com. Retrieved 2022-01-27.
External links
| |||||||||||
| Basal brontotheres |  | ||||||||||
| Brontotheriinae |
| ||||||||||
 | This prehistoric odd-toed ungulate-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |