Dinoceras
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Uintatherium Temporal range: Eocene,45–37 Ma |
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| Cast, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | †Dinocerata |
| Family: | †Uintatheriidae |
| Genus: |
†Uintatherium Leidy, 1872 |
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Uintatherium ("Beast of the Uinta Mountains") is an extinct genus of herbivorous mammal that lived during the Eocene epoch; two species are currently recognized, U. anceps from the United States during the Early to Middle Eocene, and U. insperatus of Middle to Late Eocene China.Uintatherium became extinct about 37 million years ago, due to competition with perissodactyls, such as brontotheres and rhinos.
Uintatherium was a large browsing animal. With a length of about 4 m (13 ft), a height of 1.70 m (5.6 ft), and a weight up to 2 tonnes, it was similar to today's rhinoceros, both in size and in shape, although they are not closely related. Its legs were robust to sustain the weight of the animal and were equipped with claws. Moreover, a Uintathere's sternum was made up of horizontal segments, unlike today's rhinos, which have compressed vertical segments.
Its most unusual feature was the skull, which is both large and strongly built, but simultaneously flat and concave: this feature is rare and, apart from some brontotheres, not regularly characteristic of any other known mammal. Its cranial cavity was exceptionally small due the walls of the cranium being exceedingly thick. The weight of the skull was mitigated by numerous sinuses permeating the walls of the cranium, like those in an elephant's skull.
The large upper canine teeth might have served as formidable defensive weapons, and superficially resembled those of saber-toothed cats. Sexually dimorphic, the teeth were larger in males than in females. However, they also might have used them to pluck the aquatic plants from marshes that seem to have comprised their diet.
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Wikipedia