Intraspecific variation of Eolophiodon laboriense, a basal Lophiodontidae (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from the early Eocene of Southern France

New material ofEpiaceratheriumand a new species ofMesaceratheriumclear up the phylogeny of early Rhinocerotidae (Perissodactyla)

“…In other groups of perissodactyls, there can be an important sexual dimorphism on the size of the canine (e.g. in Lophiodontidae, as reported by Vautrin et al [51]). Thus, this might explain why the lower canine could have reappeared at least twice during the evolution of the Rhinocerotidae, in Uintaceras and Teletaceras, for example ( figure 7).…”

“…in Lophiodontidae, as reported by Vautrin et al . [ 51 ]). Thus, this might explain why the lower canine could have reappeared at least twice during the evolution of the Rhinocerotidae, in Uintaceras and Teletaceras , for example ( figure 7 ).…”

New remains ofLophiaspis maurettei(Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from the early Eocene of France and the implications for the origin of the Lophiodontidae

“…8D), which is absent in the deciduous teeth from Palette. Such polymorphism is known for upper molars of Lophiodontidae (Vautrin et al, 2019) and might also be present on deciduous teeth. We propose to assign the specimen to Ls.…”

“…We analyzed the matrix using heuristic search option in Paup 4.0a162 (Swofford, 2003) with 1000 replications and branch swapping with random stepwise addition with the TBR swapping algorithm. Lophiodontids display a high dental polymorphism (Vautrin et al, 2019) and thus we choose to code the polymorphism as "0+1" following the recommendations of Wiens (1998). The consistency and retention indexes, as well as Bremer indexes for each node have been calculated under Paup 4.0a162.…”

“…The lophiodontids, which are endemic to Southern Europe during the early Eocene (Robinet et al, 2015), rapidly dispersed through all Western Europe and became the largest ungulates of the region until their extinction at the end of the middle Eocene. The latest lophiodontids are well known (Sudre, 1971), and although two lophiodontids from the Ypresian (early Eocene), Eolophiodon laboriense Robinet, Rémy, Laurent, Danilo, and Lihoreau 2015, and Lophiodon aff. eygalayense, were documented recently (Godinot et al, 2018;Vautrin et al, 2019), the remains of earliest diverging lophiodontids are scarce and often fragmentary. For this reason, the origin of lophiodontids, and their phylogenetic relationships with other perissodactyl families remain poorly known.…”