Chalicotherium, KAUP, 1833

Anquetin, Jérémy, Antoine, Pierre-Olivier & Tassy, Pascal, 2007, Middle Miocene Chalicotheriinae (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from France, with a discussion on chalicotheriine phylogeny, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 151 (3), pp. 577-608 : 587

CHALICOTHERIUM KAUP, 1833 A

Macrotherium Pictet, 1844

Diagnosis: Amoung Chalicotheriinae (height of the mandibular corpus increasing posteriorly; protoloph of P 3 and P 4 lost; protoloph not reaching the protocone on molars; upper molars subsquare), Chalicotherium is diagnosed by two unambiguous synapomorphies (see cladistic analysis): occipital condyles elongated vertically; postfossette more pinched on M 3 than on other molars.

The cranial anatomy of Chalicotherium is far less derived than that of Anisodon and retains numerous plesiomorphic traits, such as: a rather long snout and skull; parallel (in ventral view) and straight (in lateral view) upper tooth rows; lack of a lacrimal tubercle; no groove between the ventral border of the zygomatic arch and M 3; postorbital process on the jugal absent; tent-shaped braincase (not swollen); ventrally orientated paroccipital process; upper part of the occiput projected posteriorly; retromolar space present on both the maxilla and mandible; tympanic bulla not extended anterior to the postglenoid process; angulus mandibulae straight (not expanded ventrally); metacone at least as lingual as the paracone on M 1 and M 2; external walls of the metacone and metastyle subperpendicular to the mesiodistal lengthening on M 3; strong ‘metastylid’ on lower molars.

Type species: Chalicotherium goldfussi Kaup, 1833a .

Included species: Chalicotherium brevirostris .