Mesowear from 35 Anchitherium aurelianense cheek teeth at Sandelzhausen supports browse-dominated mixed feeding rather than a uniform pure-browser model.
claim:taxon:anchitheriumAnchitherium
A Miocene equid represented here by A. aurelianense at Sandelzhausen and the regional European MN3–MN9 record, not a single global genus ecology.
Represented rangeRange unavailable
Content packageperissodactyla
PBDBtxn:42987
Evidence boundary
A review packet exists and the maintainer decision is still in progress; automated checks are not a completed review.
Claim ledger
Anchitherium is treated as an equid genus, with the ecological evidence tied specifically to A. aurelianense at Sandelzhausen.
claim:taxon:anchitherium:taxonomyThe atlas’s 20.4–9 Ma occurrence envelope is provisional; the cited study independently records European Anchitherium from MN3 through MN9 without claiming exact global endpoints.
claim:taxon:anchitherium:fossil-rangeAnchitherium in the cited diagnosis has low-crowned lophodont cheek teeth and a tridactyl manus with reduced fifth metacarpal; “slender limbs” is not retained as a study result.
claim:taxon:anchitherium:morphologyThe evidence profile covers the central and western European MN3–MN9 record discussed in the primary study rather than asserting a complete North American–Eurasian genus distribution.
claim:taxon:anchitherium:biogeographyKnown limits
- A missing branch or fossil occurrence does not imply biological absence. Internal nodes are not calibrated divergence estimates.
References
- Anchitherium aurelianense (Equidae, Mammalia): a brachydont “dirty browser” in the community of herbivorous large mammals from Sandelzhausen (Miocene, Germany)Kaiser, T.M. · 2009 · DOI 10.1007/s12542-009-0002-z
- Open Tree of Life web servicesOpenTreeOfLife Project
- The Paleobiology Database application programming interfacePeters, S.E.; McClennen, M. · 2016 · DOI 10.1017/pab.2015.39
- Denormalized occurrence and taxon tables of the Paleobiology DatabaseThe Paleobiology Database Community; Kocsis, Á.T. · 2026 · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21620933
- EquidaeAmerican Museum of Natural History