Numidotherium

Numidotherium Temporal range: Middle Eocene PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Proboscidea
Family:	Numidotheriidae
Genus:	Numidotherium Jaeger, 1986
Species
N. koholense Jaeger 1986 N. savagei Court, 1995

Numidotherium ("Numidia beast") is an extinct genus of early proboscidean, discovered in 1984, that lived during the middle Eocene of North Africa some 46 million years ago. It weighed 200 kilograms.

The type species, N. koholense, is known from an almost complete skeleton from the site of El Kohol, southern Algeria dating from the early/middle Eocene period. The animal had the size and the appearance of a modern tapir. In appearance, it was more slender and more plantigrade than an elephants, its closest modern relative.^[1]

A new species, N. savagei was discovered in 1995 in late Eocene deposits at Dor el Talha, Libya, together with another primitive proboscidean, Barytherium grave. N. savagei may be a synonym of N. koholense.^[2]

Notes

1. Mahboubi et al. 1986
2. Court 1995

References

• Mahboubi, M.; Ameur, R.; Crochet, J.−Y.; Jaeger, J.−J. (1986). "El Kohol (Saharan Atlas, Algeria): A new Eocene mammals locality in North Western Africa". Palaeontographica 192 (1–3): 15–49. Retrieved May 2013.
• Court, N. (1995). "A new species of Numidotherium (Mammalia: Proboscidea) from the Eocene of Libya and the early phylogeny of the Proboscidea". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 15 (3): 650–71. doi:10.1080/02724634.1995.10011254. JSTOR 4523657. OCLC 4908959335.