Phosphatherium

Taxobox
name = "Phosphatherium"
status = fossil
fossil_range = Late Paleocene
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Proboscidea
familia = Numidotheriidae
genus = "Phosphatherium"
genus_authority = Gheerbrant et al., 1996
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
* "P. escuillei" Gheerbrant et al., 1996

"Phosphatherium" is an extinct genus of primitive proboscidean that lived during the Paleocene to early Eocene some 56 million years ago of North Africa.

Known from fragmentary dentary materials from the paleocene (Thanetian) deposits of the Ouled Abdoun Basin, Morocco, it is the smallest (about 60 cm long and weight 15 kilograms) and the oldest known member of the proboscidean order. Like its later relative, "Moeritherium", the animal was probably an amphibious browser that fed on aquatic plants, akin to a dog-sized hippopotamus.

References

* Gheerbrant, E., Sudre, J., and Cappetta, H. 1996. A Palaeocene proboscidean from Morocco. Nature 383: 68–71