żyrafy-i-kopytne: Chalicotheriidae

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Chalicotheriidae (from Ancient Greek χάλιξ (khálix), meaning "gravel", and θηρίον (theríon), meaning "beast") is an extinct family of herbivorous, perissodactyl mammals that lived in North America, Eurasia, and Africa from the Oligocene to the Early Pleistocene. Unlike living odd-toed ungulates, chalicotheres bore large claws on their hands rather than hooves, thought to have been used for grasping vegetation, with their dentition being adapted for browsing on foliage as well as possibly bark and fruit. Chalicotheriidae is divided into two subfamilies, Chalicotheriinae and Schizotheriinae. While members of Schizotheriinae had body proportions resembling those of other ungulates, members of…

Evidence: 48 • authority: 72

Therizinosaurus ( ; meaning 'scythe lizard') is a genus of very large therizinosaurid dinosaurs that lived in the Maastrichtian age during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now Asia roughly 69-66 million years ago. It contains a single species, Therizinosaurus cheloniformis, known from the fossiliferous Nemegt Formation. The first remains of Therizinosaurus were found in 1948 by a Mongolian field expedition in the Gobi Desert and later described by Evgeny Maleev in 1954. The genus is only known from a few bones, including gigantic manual unguals (claw bones), from which it gets its name, and additional findings comprising fore and hindlimb elements that were discovered from the 1960s th…

Evidence: 42 • authority: 72

Moropus (meaning "slow foot") is an extinct genus of large perissodactyl mammal in the chalicothere family. They were endemic to North America during the Miocene from ~20.4–13.6 Mya, existing for approximately 6.8 million years. Moropus belonged to the schizotheriine subfamily of chalicotheres, and has the best fossil record of any member of this group; numbers of individuals, including complete skeletons, have been found. The type species of Moropus, M. distans, was named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877, alongside two other species, M. elatus and M. senex. Three more species have been named since. Others have been named, but have either been invalidated for one reason or another, or recla…

Evidence: 42 • authority: 72

Chalicotherium (from Ancient Greek χάλιξ (khálix), meaning "gravel", and θηρίον (theríon), meaning "beast") is an extinct genus of perissodactyls in the family Chalicotheriidae. It inhabited Europe and Asia from the Early Miocene to the Late Miocene, 23.0–5.3 million years ago. Like other chalicotheriids, the species was an unusual herbivore with elongated, clawed forelimbs and shorter, more robust weight-bearing hindlimbs. The type species, Chalicotherium goldfussi, was described by Johann Jakob Kaup in 1833 from Late Miocene deposits in Europe. When French naturalist George Cuvier received a large, cleft claw from Eppelheim, Germany, he mistakenly identified it as the toe bone of a giant…