Arsinoitherium
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Arsinoitherium Temporal range: 36–27 Ma Late Eocene - Early Oligocene |
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| Arsinoitherium zitteli | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Superorder: | Afrotheria |
| Order: | †Embrithopoda |
| Family: | †Arsinoitheriidae |
| Genus: |
†Arsinoitherium Beadnell, 1902 |
| Type species | |
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Arsinoitherium zitteli Beadnell, 1902 |
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Arsinoitherium is an extinct genus of paenungulate mammal belonging to the extinct order Embrithopoda. It is related to elephants, sirenians, hyraxes and the extinct desmostylians. Arsinoitheres were superficially rhinoceros-like herbivores that lived during the late Eocene and the early Oligocene of northern Africa from 36 to 30 million years ago, in areas of tropical rainforest and at the margin of mangrove swamps. A species described in 2004, A. giganteum, lived in Ethiopia about 27 million years ago.
The generic name Arsinoitherium comes from Queen Arsinoe after whom the Fayum, the region in which the fossils were found, was called during Ptolemaic times, and the Greek: θηρίον (therion), "beast". The species epithet of the type species, A. zitteli, was given to it in honor of the eminent German paleontologist Karl Alfred von Zittel, regarded by some as the pioneer of paleontology in Egypt.
The best known (and first described) species is A. zitteli. Another species, A. giganteum, was discovered in the Ethiopian highlands of Chilga in 2003. The fossil teeth, far larger than those of A. zitteli, date back to around 28-27 million years ago While the Fayum Oasis is the only site where complete skeletons of Arsinoitherium fossils were recovered, arsinoitheriids have been found in south-eastern Europe, including Crivadiatherium from Romania, and Hypsamasia and Palaeoamasia from Turkey.
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