Arsinoitherium
Name:
Arsinoitherium
(Arsinoe’s beast, after Queen Arsinoe I of Ancient Egypt).
Phonetic: Ar-sin-oy-fee-ree-um.
Named By: H. G. C. Beadnell - 1902.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia, Afrotheria,
Embrithopoda, Arsinoitheriidae.
Species: A. zitteli
(type), A. andrewsi, A. giganteus.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: About 1.75 meters high at the shoulder
and 3 meters long.
Known locations: Egypt - Jebel Qatrani
Formation, Ethiopia, Oman - Aydim Formation, Saudi Arabia
- Shumaysi Formation.
Time period: Bartonian of the Eocene through to the
Chattian of the Oligocene.
Fossil representation: Many individuals, some
almost complete.
Arsinoitherium
fossils were first found in the Faiyum area of Egypt, and to date
these fossils are the best preserved with some specimens being almost
complete. Arsinoitherium now seems to have been
spread further across
Africa as well as parts of the Middle East, while fossil material
from Europe and Asia has revealed that the possible ancestors to the
Arsinoitherium genus may have come from other areas.
Arsinoitherium
were large quadrupedal herbivores that are immediately identifiable
from the two extremely large horns that protrude from the top of the
skull. It is thought that these two horns were sexually selected
characteristics which are most greatly developed in the males, and
would have been used primarily for display, and possibly even combat
between competing individuals. A second pair of much smaller horns
also grew from the posterior base of the larger horns.
Although
it is tempting to state that Arsinoitherium was
rhinoceros-like, the
legs and hips have both been noted to actually be more elephant-like.
Arsinoitherium is thought to have been a selective
browser of shrubs
as opposed to a grazer, a plausible scenario given that the vast
grassy plains of the Cenozoic did not begin to take hold fully until
the Miocene and after Arsinoitherium went extinct.
It may even be
that the continuing shift from forests to grass plains may have been
one of the contributing factors to the demise of Arsinoitherium.
The
form of the teeth of Arsinoitherium also indicate
that Arsinoitherium
were browsers. In total Arsinoitherium had
forty-four teeth that are
also noted for being quite primitive in form.
Further reading
- A preliminary note on Arsinoitherium zitteli,
Beadnell, from
the Upper Eocene strata of Egypt. - Public Works Ministry,
National Printing Department (Cairo): 1–4. - H. G. C.
Beadnell - 1902.
- Periotic anatomy of Arsinoitherium
(Mammalia, Embrithopoda)
and its phylogenetic implications. - Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology 10(2):170-182. - N. Court - 1990.
- New large−bodied mammals from the late Oligocene site of Chilga,
Ethiopia. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 49(3):365-392. -
W. Sanders, J. Kappelman, and D. T. Rasmussen - 2004.
- El g�nero Arsinoitherium: cat�logo de la
colecci�n in�dita del
Mus�um National d’Histoire Naturelle de Par�s y el problema del n�mero
de especies [Arsinoitherium Gender: catalog of
the new collection
of Mus�um National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris and the problem of the
number of species] - Palaeontologica Nova. SEPAZ 2008 (8)
- Jorge Mond�jar Fern�ndez, Cyrille Delmer & Pascal
Tassy - 2008.
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