Arcanotherium is an extinct genus of early proboscidean belonging to the family Numidotheriidae that lived in north Africa during the late Eocene/early Oligocene interval.
Arcanotherium Temporal range:
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Arcanotherium savagei specie | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Proboscidea |
Family: | †Numidotheriidae |
Genus: | †Arcanotherium Delmer, 2009 |
Species: | †A. savagei
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Binomial name | |
†Arcanotherium savagei Court, 1995
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Arcanotherium was originally described by Court (1995) as a new species of Numidotherium, N. savagei, based on a mandible found in the late 1960s in late Eocene deposits at Dor el Talha, Libya.[1] However, after the Barytherium material from Libya became accessible to paleontologists, undescribed material from the collection prompted Delmer (2009) to erect Arcanotherium for N. savagei.[2]
Below is a phylogenetic tree of early Proboscidea, based on the work of Hautier et al. (2021).[3]