Numidotherium
Numidotherium ("Numidia beast") is an extinct genus of early proboscideans, discovered in 1984, that lived during the middle Eocene of North Africa some 46 million years ago. It was about 90-100 cm tall at the shoulder and weighed about 250-300 kg.
| Numidotherium Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| Drawing of skull from Numidotherium with restored silhouette. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Proboscidea |
| Family: | †Numidotheriidae |
| Genus: | †Numidotherium Jaeger, 1986 |
| Species: | †N. koholense |
| Binomial name | |
| †Numidotherium koholense Jaeger, 1986 | |
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 elephant, its closest modern relative.
Numidotherium savagei, named by Court (1995) for material from late Eocene deposits at Dor el Talha, Libya, has been reassigned to its own genus, Arcanotherium.
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