Half-skull Danjiangia slides one node over to Dorcatherium
I was about to remove
tiny Danjiangia (Figs 1, 2) from the LRT before today’s morphological match turned out to be enough to retain this taxon. With only a half skull and no postcrania, Danjiangia is on the verge of being considered ‘scrappy.
Figure 1. If Danjiangia was a basal brontothere it was extremely tiny for a bronothere.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/embolotherium_skull588.jpg?w=158″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/embolotherium_skull588.jpg?w=538″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button” class=”size-full wp-image-88513″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/embolotherium_skull588.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. If Danjiangia was a basal brontothere it was extremely tiny for a bronothere.” width=”584″ height=”1111″ />
Figure 1. If Danjiangia was a basal brontothere it was extremely tiny for a brontothere. All taxa here are shown to scale.
Danjiangia pingi
(Wang 1995; early Eocene, 50 mya) was originally described as a basal chalicothere with brontothere traits. Here it nests with Dorcatherium, which was added to the LRT a few years after Danjiangia was added. The lower canines remain large. Postorbital bar appears to be complete.
Dorcatherium and Danjiangia are indeed basal to chalicotheres, but by several nodes.
A basal chalicothere in the LRT
is the extant hyrax, Procavia (Fig 2) followed by Diadiaphorus. In the LRT these taxa are further derived from Danjiangia and Dorcatherium.
Figure 1. The rock hyrax, Procavia, shown to scale with several chalicotheres.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/chalicotherium588.jpg?w=122″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/chalicotherium588.jpg?w=415″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button” class=”size-full wp-image-87217″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/chalicotherium588.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. The rock hyrax, Procavia, shown to scale with several chalicotheres.” width=”584″ height=”1441″ />
Figure 2. The rock hyrax, Procavia, shown to scale with several chalicotheres.
Here
(Fig 1) the back half of the skull of Danjiangia is restored using a smaller and shorter (= vertical dimension reduced using Photoshop) Dorcatherium skull as a Bauplan.
Not a bad fit.
Figure 1. Eocene Danjiangia compared to larger and later Dorcatherium, both nesting at the base of the slender artiodactyls.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/danjiangia-recon588.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/danjiangia-recon588.jpg?w=584″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button” class=”size-full wp-image-88504″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/danjiangia-recon588.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Eocene Danjiangia compared to larger and later Dorcatherium, both nesting at the base of the slender artiodactyls. ” width=”584″ height=”462″ />
Figure 1. Eocene Danjiangia compared to larger and later Dorcatherium, both nesting at the base of the slender artiodactyls, between pigs and camels. AND it looks like a transitional taxon between pigs and camels.
In 2017
Danjiangia first entered the LRT one node over, basal to pigs. Adding taxa like Dorcatherium refined this hypothesis. That’s what adding taxa should do.
Dorcatherium naui
(Kaup 1833; Miocene and Pliocene, 1m long) a tragulid artiodactyl nests basal to camels and deer in the LRT. Cainotherium and pigs (genus: Sus) are the outgroup taxa. Note the long canines and elongate postorbital reaching the jugal.
PS
Aceratherium has been added back into the LRT bassed on the data in figure 1, nearly identical to the much larger and later Embolotherium (Fig 1).
References
Cope ED 1882. Paleontological Bulletin 34:187.
Kaup JJ 1833. Mittheilungen an Professor Bronn gerichtet. Neus Jahrbuch für Min. Geog. Geol., 1833 (1833), pp. 419-420.
Wang Y 1995. A new primitive Chalicothere (Perissodactyla, Mammalia) from the early Eocene of Hubei, China. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 33(2):138-159
wiki/Danjiangia in German
wiki/Dorcatherium
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2024/09/03/half-skull-danjiangia-slides-one-node-over-to-dorcatherium/
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