Biology:Carodnia

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Short description: Genus of South American hoofed mammals (fossil)

Carodnia
Temporal range: Early Eocene
(Itaboraian-Casamayoran)
~53–48.6 Ma
Carodnia vieirai.JPG
Carodnia vieirai
Scientific classification e
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Xenungulata
Family: Carodniidae
Genus: Carodnia
Simpson 1935[1]
Species
Synonyms

Ctalecarodnia Simpson 1935

Carodnia is an extinct genus of South American ungulate known from the Early Eocene of Brazil , Argentina , and Peru.[3] Carodnia is placed in the order Xenungulata together with Etayoa and Notoetayoa.[4]

Carodnia is the largest mammal known from the Eocene of South America. It was heavily built and had large canines and cheek teeth with a crested pattern like the uintatheres to which it can be related.[3] In life, it would have been a tapir-sized animal. It bore strong resemblances to dinoceratans, although without tusks or ossicones. When George Simpson first described Carodnia, he cited the genus name as being derived from the Tehuelche word for thunder "carodn".[5]

Description

Size comparison between a human and C. vieirai

Simpson noted that Carodnia resembles the primitive uintathere Probathyopsis. Although Paula Couto also made the same favorable comparison, he placed Carodnia in the new order Xenungulata. Gingerich 1985 concluded that Probathyopsis shares several dental characteristics with Carodnia, but that in the latter the anterior dentition of is more reduced, the second lower and upper premolars are enlarged and pointed, and that the first and second molars are more lophodont. Gingerich thought the differences could justify a separate family for Carodnia but proposed that it should be included in Probathyopsis,Cifelli 1983 grouped Carodnia with Pyrotheria but later concluded that this was a mistake.[6]

Carodnia is characterized by bilophodont[explain 1] first and second molars and more complex lophate[explain 1] third molars, which suggests possible links to pyrotheres, uintatheres, and even arctocyonids. The bones of the foot are short and robust and the digits terminate in broad, flat, and unfissured hoof-like unguals, unlike any other known meridiungulate.[7]

C. feruglioi and C. cabrerai, from the Riochican in the SALMA classification of Patagonia,[6] are known from only a few dental remains. C. vieirai (from the Itaboraian SALMA of Itaborai)[6] is known from much more complete dental, cranial, and postcranial remains including an almost complete mandible, many vertebrae, and several partial leg bones.[8]

When Simpson 1935 first described Carodnia and Ctalecarodnia, the former was known only from a left lower molar which was lacking in the latter, making a comparison very difficult. Paula Couto 1952, based on considerably more complete remains, concluded that the molars and premolars of both are indistinguishable and therefore reduced Ctalecarodnia to a synonym. Paula Couto also noted that the dentition of C. cabrerai and C. feruglioi are similar except in size, and that C. feruglioi can be a juvenile C. cabrerai, but nevertheless left them as two distinct species.[9]

Distribution

Fossils of Carodnia have been found in:[10]

Itaboraian correlations

Itaboraian correlations in South America
Basin Itaboraí Golfo San Jorge Salta Altiplano Basin Talara &
Tumbes
Altiplano
Cundiboyacense
Cesar-Ranchería
Carodnia is located in South America
Carodnia
Carodnia
Carodnia
Carodnia
Carodnia
Carodnia
Carodnia
Carodnia
Carodnia (South America)
Country  Brazil  Argentina  Peru  Colombia
Carodnia Orange pog.svg Orange pog.svg
Gashternia 14px 14px 14px
Henricosbornia 14px 14px 14px
Victorlemoinea Orange pog.svg Orange pog.svg
Polydolopimorphia 14px 14px 14px 14px
Birds White pog.svg White pog.svg
Reptiles 10px 10px 10px 10px 10px
Fish Blue pog.svg Blue pog.svg
Flora 10px 10px 10px
Environments Alluvial-lacustrine Alluvial-fluvial Fluvio-lacustrine Lacustrine Fluvial Fluvio-deltaic
Pink ff0080 pog.svg Itaboraian volcanoclastics

8px Itaboraian fauna

Dark Green 004040 pog.svg Itaboraian flora
Volcanic Yes

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 A loph is a crest on the crown of a tooth. A bilophodont tooth has two parallel lophs running transversally across the tooth.

References

  1. Carodnia in the Paleobiology Database. Retrieved May 2013.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Pierre-Olivier Antoine; Guillaume Billet; Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi; Julia Tejada Lara; Patrice Baby; Stéphane Brusset; Nicolas Espurt (2015). "A New Carodnia Simpson, 1935 (Mammalia, Xenungulata) from the Early Eocene of Northwestern Peru and a Phylogeny of Xenungulates at Species Level". Journal of Mammalian Evolution 22 (2): 129–140. doi:10.1007/s10914-014-9278-1. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20230313-433399000.10. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Pantodonts, uintatheres and xenungulates: The first large herbivorous mammals". Paleocene Mammals. August 2005. http://www.paleocene-mammals.de/large_herbivores.htm. 
  4. "Xenungulata". Palaeocritti. http://www.palaeocritti.com/by-group/eutheria/xenungulata. 
  5. Simpson, George Gaylord (1935). "Descriptions of the oldest known South American mammals, from the Río Chico Formation". American Museum Novitates. Publications of the Scarritt Expeditions, no. 24 (793). OCLC 44083494. 
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Gingerich 1985, pp. 130–1
  7. Rose 2006, Xenungulata, p. 238
  8. Paula Couto 1952, pp. 371–2
  9. Paula Couto 1952, pp. 372–3
  10. Carodnia at Fossilworks.org

Bibliography

Wikidata ☰ Q3311285 entry