Coryphodontidae

Coryphodontidae Temporal range: Late Paleocene–Middle Eocene PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Coryphodon skeleton
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	†Cimolesta
Suborder:	†Pantodonta Cope 1873
Superfamily:	†Coryphodontoidae Simons 1960
Family:	†Coryphodontidae Marsh 1876
Genera[1]
†Asiocoryphodon Xu 1976 †Coryphodon (type) Owen 1845 †Eudinoceras Osborn 1924 †Heterocoryphodon Lucas & Tong 1987 †Hypercoryphodon Osborn & Granger 1932 †Metacoryphodon Chow & Qi 1982 †Procoryphodon Flerow 1957
Synonyms
Bathmodontidae

Coryphodontidae is an extinct family of pantodont mammals known from the Late Paleocene to the Middle Eocene of Eurasia and North America.^[2]

The Late Eocene dinoceratan Gobiatherium major, and the pantodont Hypercoryphodon, of what is now Mongolia.

The type genus Coryphodon is known from around the Paleocene-Eocene transition in Europe, western United States, northern Canada, and eastern Asia. The remaining genera are known exclusively from the middle Eocene of Asia.^[3]

The coryphodontids are related to the pantolambdids. Coryphodon are large, derived pantodonts first described in the mid-19th century, but no intermediate stages leading to their unusual upper molars are known.^[4] The last known species of Coryphodon have bilophodont molars similar to later, more derived coryphodontids, and, most likely, Coryphodon is the primitive sister taxon to the remaining genera and the entire lineage (or lineages) originated from within this genus.^[5] Two coryphodontids considerably larger than Coryphodon but endemic to China, Asiocoryphodon and Heterocoryphodon, have more advanced bilophodont dentition.^[6] Metacoryphodon is morphologically transitional between Coryphodon and Eudinoceras.^[7]

Corypohodontids were slow-growing and long-living animals, and studies of a large sample of individuals from a single locality, assumed to be from the same population, suggest that coryphodontids had a polygynous social structure in which males and females reached sexual maturity at different ages.^[2][8]

Notes

1. Coryphodontidae in the Paleobiology Database. Retrieved July 2013.
2. "New Material of Mammal Coryphodontid Found From the Erlian Basin Of Nei Mongol". Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. August 2012. Retrieved July 2013.
3. Lucas & Tong 1988, Introduction
4. Rose 2006, p. 118
5. Uhen & Gingerich 1995, p. 265
6. Lucas 2001, p. 213
7. Chow & Qi 1982, p. 312
8. Mao & Wang 2012, p. 276

References

• Chow, Minchen; Qi, Tao (1982). "Mammals from the Middle Eocene Kuanchuang Formation of Xintai, Shandong" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica (in Chinese and English) 20 (4): 302–14. Retrieved July 2013.
• Cope, E. D. (1873). "On the short footed Ungulata of the Eocene of Wyoming". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 13: 38–74. Retrieved July 2013.
• Flerow, Constantin C. (1957). "A new coryphodont from Mongolia, and on evolution and distribution of Pantodonta" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica 1 (2): 73–81. Retrieved July 2013.
• Lucas, Spencer G. (2001). Chinese Fossil Vertebrates. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231504614. Retrieved July 2013.
• Lucas, Spencer G.; Tong, Yongsheng (1987). "A New Coryphodontid (Mammalia, Pantodonta) from the Eocene of China". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 7 (4): 362–72. doi:10.1080/02724634.1988.10011670. JSTOR 4523161.
• Marsh, O. C. (1876). "On some characters of the genus Coryphodon Owen". American Journal of Science 3: 425–28. Retrieved July 2013.
• Osborn, H. F.; Granger, Walter (1932). "Coryphodonts and Uintatheres from the Mongolian Expedition of 1930" (PDF). American Museum Novitates 552. Retrieved July 2013.
• Osborn, H. F. (1924). "Eudinoceras, Upper Eocene amblypod of Mongolia". American Museum Novitates 145. Retrieved July 2013.
• Owen, R. (1845). Odontography; a treatise on the comparative anatomy of the teeth. London: Hippolyte Bailliere. OCLC 727240564. Retrieved July 2013.
• Simons, Elwyn L. (1960). "The Paleocene Pantodonta". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society) 50 (6). JSTOR 1005810. OCLC 1891164.
• Uhen, Mark D.; Gingerich, Philip D. (1995). "Evolution of Coryphodon (Mammalia, Pantodonta) in the Late Paleocene and Early Eocene of Northwestern Wyoming" (PDF). Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan 29 (10): 259–89. OCLC 742731820. Retrieved July 2013.
• Mao, Fang-Yuan; Wang, Yuan-Qing (2012). "Coryphodontids (Mammalia: Pantodonta) from the Erlian Basin of Nei Mongol, China, and their biostratigraphic implications" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica (in Chinese and English) 50 (3): 258–80. Retrieved July 2013.
• Xu, Y. (1976). "Some new forms of Coryphodontidae from the early Eocene of Xichuan, Honan" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica (in Chinese) 14: 185–93. Retrieved July 2013.