Arcanotherium

Arcanotherium is an extinct genus of early proboscidean belonging to the family Numidotheriidae that lived in North Africa during the late Eocene/early Oligocene interval.

Arcanotherium Temporal range: Late Eocene–Early Oligocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Arcanotherium savagei mandible
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Proboscidea
Family:	†Numidotheriidae
Genus:	†Arcanotherium Delmer, 2009
Species:	†A. savagei
Binomial name
†Arcanotherium savagei Court, 1995

Taxonomy

Arcanotherium was originally described by Court (1995) as a new species of Numidotherium, N. savagei, based on a mandible found in the late 1960s in late Eocene deposits at Dor el Talha, Libya.^[1] However, after the Barytherium material from Libya became accessible to paleontologists, undescribed material from the collection prompted Delmer (2009) to erect Arcanotherium for N. savagei.^[2]

Phylogeny

Below is a phylogenetic tree of early Proboscidea, based on the work of Hautier et al. (2021).^[3]

Proboscidea	Eritherium Phosphatherium Daouitherium Numidotherium Barytherium Arcanotherium Omanitherium Saloumia Moeritherium Deinotheriidae Elephantiformes Elephantimorpha Dagbatitherium