Ancylopoda

For the clade of reptiles, see Ankylopoda.

Ancylopoda Temporal range: Eocene–Middle Pleistocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Perissodactyla
Clade:	Tapiromorpha
Suborder:	†Ancylopoda
Superfamilies[1]
Chalicotherioidea Lophiodontidae

Ancylopoda is a group of browsing, herbivorous, mammals in the Perissodactyla that show long, curved and cleft claws.^[2] Morphological evidence indicates the Ancylopoda diverged from the tapirs, rhinoceroses and horses (Euperissodactyla) after the Brontotheria; however, earlier authorities such as Osborn sometimes considered the Ancylopoda to be outside Perissodactyla or, as was popular more recently, to be related to Brontotheriidae.^{[citation needed]}

Macrotherium, which is typically from the middle Miocene of Sansan, in Gers, France, may indicate a distinct genus. Limb-bones resembling those of Macrotherium, but relatively stouter, have been described from the Pliocene beds of Attica and Samos as Ancylotherium. In the Americas, the names Morothorium and Moropus have been applied to similar bones, in the belief that they indicated xenarthrans. Macrotherium magnum must have been an animal of about 9 ft (2.7 m) in length.^[3]

References

1. Jacobs, Louis L.; Scott, Kathleen Marie (1998). Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America: Terrestrial carnivores, ungulates, and ungulatelike mammals. Cambridge University Press. pp. 561–567, 570–571. ISBN 978-0-521-35519-3.
2. Coombs, Margery C.; Rothschild, Bruce M. (Jul 1999). "Phalangeal Fusion in Schizotheriine Chalicotheres (Mammalia, Perissodactyla)". Journal of Paleontology. 73 (4). Paleontological Society: 682–690. JSTOR 1306767.
3. "The large-sized darter Anhinga pannonica (Aves, Anhingidae) from the late Miocene hominid Hammerschmiede locality in Southern Germany". National Library of Medicine. 2020-05-06.