Xenorhinotherium
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Extinct (fossil)
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| Xenorhinotherium bahiensis Owen, 1838 |
Xenorhinotherium (Xenorhinotherium bahiensis), a Brazilian species in the Macraucheniidae family, was related to Macrauchenia patachonica of Patagonia.
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[edit] Name
Some authors place X. bahiensis in the genus Macrauchenia, while still others consider it the same species as M. patachonica. Xenorhinotherium bahiensis is the only macraucheniid to be found in Brazil. The name Xenorhinotherium means "Strange-Nosed Beast" and bahiensis refers to the Brazilian state of Bahia, where it was found.
[edit] Characteristics
Like other macraucheniids, it had a small proboscis, or trunk. Xenorhinotherium had three-toed feet like its relatives did. It also had other features atypical of most mammals, which has made it difficult for paleontologists to envision what this animal would have looked like. This animal was an herbivore and could measure up to five meters in length, making this animal approximately three meters in height.
[edit] Era and Location
Xenorhinotherium lived during the Pleistocene Epoch and went extinct about fifty-two thousand years ago. If Xenorhinotherium is not the same as Macrauchenia, then Xenorhinotherium would have been be the last species of the Macraucheniidae family [1]. It is also noted that Xenorhinotherium was restricted to intertropical Brazil and that due to an anatomical analysis revealing differences in the skull, the Xenorhinotherium and Macrauchenia were not the same. Rather than a connection with Macrauchenia, a connection with Macraucheniopsis ensenadensis is more present. [2]
[edit] In popular culture
Some fictionalized Xenorhinotherium are seen as extras in the film Ice Age under the moniker "freaky mammals".
