Griphodon

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Griphodon Temporal range: Middle Eocene ~48–37 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Mandible of Griphodon
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	†Pyrotheria
Family:	†Pyrotheriidae
Genus:	†Griphodon Anthony 1924
Type species
Griphodon peruvianus Anthony, 1924
Species
G. peruvianus Anthony 1924

Griphodon is an extinct genus of mammals, belonging to the order Pyrotheria. It lived during the Middle Eocene, in what is now Peru.

All that is known about this animal is a fragment of a mandible complete with teeth. Its teeth were two-crested, slightly more transversal than in other genera such as Carolozittelia, but there are indications of the presence of a longitudinal crest, and even, in the third premolar, of a complete crest, not found in Pyrotherium.

Griphodon peruvianus was first described in 1924 by Anthony, who considered it to be a Perissodactyl. The fragmentary fossil was found near Chicoca, along the Huallaga River. Subsequently the genus was considered a basal member of the Pyrotheres, a mysterious clade of heavy-shaped mammals from the Early Cenozoic of South America, of uncertain affinities. Other fossils attributed to Griphodon were later found near Contamana in the Loreto Province of Peru.

Griphodon seems to had a diet mainly composed of tough plants, which were crushed by its powerful crested teeth.

• H. E. Anthony. 1924. A new fossil perissodactyl from Peru. American Museum Novitates 111:1-3
• B. J. Shockey and F. Anaya-Daza. 2004. Pyrotherium macfaddeni, sp. nov. (late Oligocene, Bolivia) and the pedal morphology of pyrotheres. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 24(2):481-488
• P. Antoine, M. A. Abello, S. Adnet, A. J. Altamirano Sierra, P. Baby, G. Billet, M. Boivin, Y. Calderón, A. Candela, J. Chabain, F. Corfu, D. A. Croft, M. Ganerød, C. Jaramillo, S. Klaus, L. Marivaux, R. E. Navarrete, M. J. Orliac, F. Parra, M. E. Pérez, F. Pujos, J. Rage, and A. R. 2016. A 60-million-year Cenozoic history of western Amazonian ecosystems in Contamana, eastern Peru. Gondwana Research 31:30-59