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ANCYLOPODA, or ANCYLODACTYLA

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 953 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ANCYLOPODA, or ANCYLODACTYLA , an apparently See also:primitive See also:extinct subordinal See also:group of See also:Ungulata showing certain resemblances to the See also:Perissodactyla, both as regards the cheek-See also:teeth and the See also:skeleton, but broadly distinguished by the feet being of an edentate type, carrying See also:long curved and cleft terminal claws. From this See also:peculiar structure of the feet it would seem that the See also:weight of the See also:body was mainly carried on their See also:outer sides, as in Edentates. The group is typified by Chalicotherium, of which the See also:original See also:species was discovered in' the See also:Lower See also:Pliocene strata of Eppelsheim, See also:Hesse-See also:Darmstadt, in 1825, and named on the See also:evidence of the teeth, the limbs being subsequently described as Macrotherium. The See also:skull is See also:short, with a dental See also:formula of i., c.4-, p. . m. -, but in fully adult animals most of the front teeth were See also:shed. The molar teeth recall those of Palaeosyops (see TITANOTHLRIIDAE). Remains referred to Chalicotherium have been also obtained from the Lower Pliocene and Upper See also:Miocene strata of See also:Greece, See also:Hungary, See also:India, See also:China and See also:North See also:America. A skull from Pikermi, near Mt. Pentelikon, See also:Attica, shows the See also:absence in the adult See also:state of upper and lower incisors and upper canines, much the same See also:condition being indicated in an See also:Indian skull. There were three toes to each See also:foot, and the femur lacked a third trochanter. Macrotherium, which is typically from the See also:Middle Miocene of Sansan, in See also:Gers, See also:France, may indicate a distinct genus.

See also:

Limb-bones nearly resembling those of Macrotherium, but relatively stouter, have been described from the Pliocene beds of Attica and See also:Samos as Ancylotherium. In America the names Morotherium and Moropus have been applied to similar bones, on the belief that they indicated edentates. Macrotherium magnum must have been an See also:animal of about 9 ft. in length. The See also:South See also:American genus Homalodontotherium is often placed in the Ancylopoda, but reasons against this view are given in the See also:article See also:LITOPTERNA. See also:Professor H. F. See also:Osborn considers that the Ancylopoda are directly descended from the Condylarthra. See also H. F. Osborn, " The Ancylopoda Chalicotherium and Artionyx,"Amer. Nat. (1893), p.

118, and "Artionyx, a New Genus of Ancylopoda," See also:

Bull. Amer. See also:Mus. vol. v. p. I (1893). [N.B.—Artionyx was subsequently found to be an Artiodactyle.] (R.

End of Article: ANCYLOPODA, or ANCYLODACTYLA

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