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Helaletes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Helaletes
Temporal range: Early Eocene
H. nanus skeleton
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Helaletidae
Genus: Helaletes
Marsh, 1872
Species:
H. nanus
Binomial name
Helaletes nanus
Marsh, 1871

Helaletes is a genus of an extinct perissodactyls closely related to tapirs. Fossils have been found in North America.

Taxonomy

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The type species of Helaletes, H. nanus, is known from Bridgerian-age fossils in the western US.[1] Desmatotherium mongoliensis was previously referred to Helaletes, but Bai et al. (2017) found it distantly related to the H. nanus type species, while excluding the nominal species H. medius Qiu, 1987 from Helaletidae.[2]

Restoration of Helaletes nanus

References

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  1. ^ "Fossilworks: Helaletes nanus". Archived from the original on 2022-09-04. Retrieved 2021-12-17.
  2. ^ Bai B, Wang Y Q, Mao F Y et al., 2017. New material of Eocene Helaletidae (Perissodactyla, Tapiroidea) from the Irdin Manha Formation of the Erlian Basin, Inner Mongolia, China and comments on related localities of the Huheboerhe Area. Am Mus Novit, 3878: 1–44.