Epoicotheriidae

Epoicotheriidae
Temporal range: 57.8–30.9 Ma late Paleocene - early Oligocene
Artist reconstruction of
Xenocranium pileorivale
compared to the size of a human hand.
skull of Pentapassalus pearcei
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: †Palaeanodonta
Family: †Epoicotheriidae
Simpson, 1927[1]
Type genus
†Epoicotherium
Simpson, 1927
Genera[2]
[see classification]

Epoicotheriidae ("strange beasts") is an extinct paraphyletic family of insectivorous placental mammals within extinct order Palaeanodonta, that lived in North America, Asia and Europe from the late Paleocene to early Oligocene.[2] Epoicotheriids were fossorial mammals. Late Eocene/early Oligocene genera were highly specialized animals that were convergent with the talpids, golden moles and marsupial mole in the structure of their skulls and forelimbs, and would have had a similar lifestyle as subterranean burrowers.[3]

  1. ^ G. G. Simpson (1927.) "In North American Oligocene edentate." Annals of Carnegie Museum 17 (2): 283-299
  2. ^ a b "Classification of the family Epoicotheriidae". Paleobiology Database. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  3. ^ Kenneth D. Rose, Robert J. Emry (1983) "Extraordinary fossorial adaptations in the oligocene palaeanodonts Epoicotherium and Xenocranium (Mammalia)" Journal of Morphology 175(1):33 - 56