Cambaytherium

Cambaytherium is an extinct genus of placental mammals in the family Cambaytheriidae.[2] Known from the Eocene whose fossils were found in an open pit coal mine located in Gujarat, India.[3] The mine was a treasure trove full of teeth and bones, over 200 of which were identified as belonging to Cambaytherium thewissi. The fossils were dated to 54.5 million years old making them slightly younger than the oldest known fossils belonging to the order Perissodactyla.

Cambaytherium
Temporal range: Eocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Perissodactyla[1]
Family:
†Cambaytheriidae
Genus:
†Cambaytherium

Bajpai et al., 2005
Species
  • †C. bidens
  • †C. minor
  • †C. thewissi

Description

Cambaytherium was a genus of herbivorous, digitigrade, four legged quadrupeds with small hooves. Cambaytherium was roughly the size of a pig and likely weighed 45 to 75 pounds (20.4 to 34 kg). Based on analysis of shapes and surfaces of the long bones of its limbs Cambaytherium also probably had five finger-like or toe-like bones, although Ken Rose, the leader of the research team that discovered many of the fossils of Cambaytherium hesitated at calling them digits. That number was reduced in perissodactyls as they developed more modern hooves.[3] Many of Cambaytherium's features, such as the teeth, the number of sacral vertebrae, and the bones of the hands and feet, are quite intermediate between Perissodactyla and earlier mammals and Ken Rose stated that the findings help to make a window of what the common ancestor of all of Perissodactyla looked like.

Taxonomy

Cambaytherium is considered to be close to the ancestry of Perissodactyla, the odd-toed ungulates. It retains features later lost among its sister mammals, the perissodactyls, which includes tapirs, rhinoceroses, and horses. The presence of the sister group of perissodactyls in western India near or before the time of its collision with Asia, suggests that Perissodactyla may have originated on the Indian Plate during its final drift toward Asia.[3]

References
  1. Rose, K. D.; Holbrook, L. T.; Rana, R. S.; Kumar, K.; Jones, K. E.; Ahrens, H. E.; Missiaen, P.; Sahni, A.; Smith, T. (20 November 2014). "Early Eocene fossils suggest that the mammalian order Perissodactyla originated in India". Nature Communications. 5 (5570): 5570. Bibcode:2014NatCo...5.5570R. doi:10.1038/ncomms6570. PMID 25410701.
  2. S. Bajpai; V. V. Kapur; D. P. Das; B. N. Tiwari; N. Saravanan; R. Sharma (2005). "Early Eocene land mammals from Vastan Lignite Mine, District Surat (Gujarat), Western India". Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India. 50 (1): 101–113.
  3. Mohan, Geoffrey (20 November 2014). "Strange rhino-horse wandered ancient India". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 21 November 2014.


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