Daouitherium

Daouitherium ("Sidi Daoui beast" from the name of the site where it was discovered) is an extinct genus of early proboscideans (a group including modern elephants and their extinct relatives) that lived during the early Eocene (Ypresian stage) some 55 million years ago in North Africa.

Daouitherium Temporal range: Early Eocene
Lower jaws
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Proboscidea
Family:	†Numidotheriidae
Genus:	†Daouitherium Gheerbrant & Sudre, 2002
Species:	†D. rebouli
Binomial name
†Daouitherium rebouli Gheerbrant & Sudre, 2002

Daouitherium (A) and Numidotherium (B) lower dentition Scale bars: 5 mm

Remains of this animal, fragments of jaws and teeth, have been found in the Ouled Abdoun Basin in Morocco. It is estimated to have weighed between 80 and 170 kg (180 and 370 lb), making it one of the earliest large mammals known from Africa and one of the oldest known proboscideans.^[1] Another estimate gives a weight of 200 kg (440 lb).^[2]

Description

Daouitherium is known only from lower jaws and associated cheek teeth. It had lophodont and bilophodont molars, i.e. molars with large ridges. The second and third premolars had a notably large cusp called the hypoconid. Gheerbrant et al. described the teeth as similar to those of other early proboscideans Phosphatherium, Numidotherium, and Barytherium.^[1]

Taxonomy

 A cladogram of Proboscidea based on the phylogenetic analysis of Hautier et al. 2021 is below:^[3]

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

See also

• Fauna of Africa