Talahphiomys, Jaeger & Marivaux & Salem & Bilal & Benammi & Chaimanee & Duringer & Marandat & Métais & Schuster & Valentin & Brunet, 2010

Jaeger, Jean-Jacques, Marivaux, Laurent, Salem, Mustapha, Bilal, Awad Abolhassan, Benammi, Mouloud, Chaimanee, Yaowalak, Duringer, Philippe, Marandat, Bernard, Métais, Eddy, Schuster, Mathieu, Valentin, Xavier & Brunet, Michel, 2010, New rodent assemblages from the Eocene Dur At-Talah escarpment (Sahara of central Libya): systematic, biochronological, and palaeobiogeographical implications, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 160 (1), pp. 195-213 : 208

GENUS TALAHPHIOMYS GEN. NOV.

Type species: Talahphiomys lavocati ( Wood, 1968) .

Included species: Talahphiomys libycus sp. nov.

Etymology: The genus name derives from the Arabic word ‘Talah’, which means ‘acacia trees’ (from Dur At-Talah: ‘place of the acacia trees’), plus ‘ phiomys ’ (‘ Phiom ’, the Greek designation of the Fayum), which is the genotype name (sensu Osborn, 1908) of the family Phiomyidae .

Distribution: Late middle Eocene of central Libya (Dur At-Talah desert) to early Oligocene of Fayum in Egypt.

Generic diagnosis: Small phiomyid with bunodont cheek teeth characterized by bulbous cusps and cuspids, and by a poor to moderate development of the transverse crests. Differs from Protophiomys , Phiomys , and Metaphiomys in the presence of a distinct central cusp on upper molars (especially on M 1 and M 2), which is a metaconule (= mesocone), in the absence of a well-developed metaloph, and in the lack of a strong anteroloph, which appears as a simple and low anterior cingulum that is not connected to the protocone. Lower molars differ also from those of these taxa in showing a stronger hypoconulid and in lacking the posterior arm of the protoconid. Differs from Phiomys in the absence of both mesoconid and mesolophid. Differs from the baluchimyines in lacking the strong anteroloph on upper molars and both the posterior arm of the protoconid and the anterior cingulid on lower molars, from Baluchimys and Lindsaya in lacking the endoloph and in showing a stronger development of the anterior arm of the hypocone on upper molars, and from Hodsahibia and Bugtimys in lacking the metaloph on upper molars.