Loxolophus
| Loxolophus Temporal range: Lower Palaeocene
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|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | †Arctocyonia |
| Family: | †Arctocyonidae |
| Genus: | †Loxolophus Cope, 1885 |
| Type species | |
| †Loxolophus hyattianus Cope, 1885
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| Species | |
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Loxolophus is a genus of large arctocyonid from the early Palaeocene of North America. Two species are currently recognised: the type species, Loxolophus hyattianus, and L. priscus.
Taxonomy
[edit]Early history
[edit]The holotype of Loxolophus (AMNH 3121), a fragment of the left maxilla, was formally described by Edward Drinker Cope in 1885. Cope initially assigned it to Chriacus, and gave it the binomial name C. hyattianus. In the same paper, a single page later, he described Loxolophus adapinus.[1] Subsequently, they turned out to represent the same taxon, which at some point thereafter was recombined as Loxolophus hyattianus.[2] A second species, L. priscus, was named three years after the initial paper, also by Cope, who similarly assigned it to Chriacus.[3] Subsequently, it was reassigned to Protochriacus by William Berryman Scott in 1892,[4] then synonymised with Chriacus pugnax by George Gaylord Simpson in 1935,[5] and finally was assigned to Loxolophus by William Diller Matthew in 1937.[6]
Classification
[edit]A phylogenetic analysis by Peter E. Kondrashov and Spencer G. Lucas in 2015 recovered Arctocyonidae as a paraphyletic lineage of archaic ungulates, wherein Loxolophus forms a sister taxon to a clade consisting of Arctocyon, Desmatoclaenus, Protogonodon, Deuterogonodon and Tricentes.[2] Another analysis published that year, published by Thomas J. D. Halliday, Paul Upchurch and Anjali Goswami, recovered Loxolophus as part of a clade also including Anacodon, Oxyclaenus, and several other traditional arctocyonid genera, distantly related to pangolins.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ Cope, Edward Drinker (1885). "The oldest Tertiary Mammalia". The American Naturalist. 19: 385–387.
- ^ a b Kondrashov, Peter E.; Lucas, Spencer G. (2015). Sullivan, Robert M.; Lucas, Spencer G. (eds.). Fossil Record 4: Bulletin 67. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.
- ^ Cope, E. D. (1888). "Synopsis of the Vertebrate Fauna of the Puerco Series". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 16 (2): 298–361. doi:10.2307/1005393. ISSN 0065-9746.
- ^ Scott, William Berryman (1892). "A Revision of the North American Creodonta with Notes on Some Genera Which Have Been Referred to That Group". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 44: 291–323. ISSN 0097-3157.
- ^ Simpson, George Gaylord (1935). "New Paleocene mammals from the Fort Union of Montana". Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 83 (2981): 221––244. doi:10.5479/si.00963801.2981.221.
- ^ Matthew, William Diller (1937). "Paleocene Faunas of the San Juan Basin, New Mexico". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 30: i–510. doi:10.2307/1005521. ISSN 0065-9746.
- ^ Halliday, Thomas J.D.; Upchurch, Paul; Goswami, Anjali (2015). "Resolving the relationships of Paleocene placental mammals" (PDF). Biological Reviews. 92 (1): 521–55. doi:10.1111/brv.12242. PMC 6849585. PMID 28075073. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 23, 2022.