// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Metatitan say to its date? "You're meta-mine.
| Metatitan | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Placentalia |
| Order: | Perissodactyla |
| Family: | †Brontotheriidae |
| Subfamily: | †Brontotheriinae |
| Tribe: | †Brontotheriini |
| Subtribe: | †Brontotheriina |
| Infratribe: | †Embolotheriita |
| Genus: | †Metatitan Granger and Gregory, 1943 |
| Species | |
| |
Metatitan is an extinct genus of horned brontothere that lived in East Asia during the Middle to Late Eocene, from the Irdinmanhan to Ulangochuian land mammal ages.
Description
[edit]Metatitan is known from cranial and mandibular remains. The genus has wide nasals and a small post-canine diastema. The canines of Metatitan are enlarged. They had nasal horns similar to other brontotheres, with the horns pointing forwards in all species. Uniquely, the horns of even the latest species are smaller in comparison to contemporary brontotheres.[2] The molars are elongate and crowned, whilst the incisors are small.[2][3] The incisor formula of Metatitan is closer to more basal brontotheres than more derived members of the clade.[2][3]
Classification
[edit]Metatitan is currently considered a relative of Gnathotitan and Embolotherium, and is suspected to have evolved from Rhinotitan.[4] Historically, it was suggested that Metatitan represents females of Embolotherium, as a form of sexual dimorphism, though this is not generally accepted.[2] A generic synonymy with Brachydiastematherium has also been proposed,[5] though some other researchers do not affirm such synonymy.[4]
References
[edit]- ↑ Mihlbachler, Matthew C. (2008). "Species Taxonomy, Phylogeny, and Biogeography of the Brontotheriidae (Mammalia: Perissodactyla)". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 2008 (31). doi:10.1206/0003-0090(2008)501[1:STPABO]2.0.CO;2.
- 1 2 3 4 Granger, Walter; Gregory, William K. (1943). "A revision of the Mongolian titanotheres". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 80: 349–389. hdl:2246/383. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
- 1 2 "LARGE MAMMALS FOUND FROM HOULDJIN FORMATION NEAR ERENHOT, NEI MONGOL, CHINA". Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 47 (2). 2009-06-15. ISSN 2096-9899. Archived from the original on 2025-08-07.
- 1 2 Bai, Bin; Wang, Yuan-Qing; Li, Qian; Wang, Hai-Bing; Mao, Fang-Yuan; Gong, Yan-Xin; Meng, Jin (December 2018). "Biostratigraphy and Diversity of Paleogene Perissodactyls from the Erlian Basin of Inner Mongolia, China". American Museum Novitates (3914): 1–60. doi:10.1206/3914.1. ISSN 0003-0082. Archived from the original on 2025-08-30.
- ↑ Mihlbachler, Matthew C.; Mihlbachler, Matthew C.; Lucas, Spencer G.; Emry, Robert J.; Bayshashov, Bolat (2004). A new brontothere (Brontotheriidae, Perissodactyla, Mammalia) from the Eocene of the Ily Basin of Kazakstan and a phylogeny of Asian "horned" brontotheres. New York, NY: American Museum of Natural History.
| |||||||||||||||||
| Basal brontotheres |  | ||||||||||||||||
| Brontotheriinae |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Nomen dubia | |||||||||||||||||
| Related articles | |||||||||||||||||
 | This prehistoric odd-toed ungulate-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. |