Dinotoxodon

Dinotoxodon Temporal range: Late Miocene ~9–6.8 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	†Notoungulata
Family:	†Toxodontidae
Subfamily:	†Toxodontinae
Genus:	†Dinotoxodon Mercerat, 1895
Species:	†D. paranensis
Binomial name
†Dinotoxodon paranensis Mercerat, 1895

Dinotoxodon is an extinct genus of notoungulates, belonging to the family Toxodontidae, that lived during the Middle Miocene, approximately 15 Ma, in South America.

Description

The body was low and robust, supported by short, stocky legs. The relatively small plantigrade feet had three hoofed toes. As its rear legs were longer than its front legs, the body leaned forward at shoulder height. This leaning was partially compensated by the great development of the withers.

The skull was quite large comparatively to its height. The front part of the mouth was wide, with perhaps prehensile lips used to pluck grass, like the modern white rhinoceros. The skull narrowed just behind the snout, then widened again. The zygomatic arches were large. Dinotoxodon could feed on hard and tough grass and on the vegetation of wet alluvial meadows. Its teeth indicate that Dinotoxodon was simultaneously a browser and a grazer, cutting and chewing the tough grass of the plains, but also feeding on foliage. The vegetation on which they fed was so abrasive that in older individuals all traces of enamel covering the canines had disappeared.

References

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