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Data and code from: The genus Coryphodon in Europe: Contribution of the new exceptional material from Le Quesnoy (northern France, early Eocene, MP7)

Raynaud, Benjamin1; Métais, Grégoire1; Gheerbrant, Emmanuel1; Ni, Xijun2; Chabrol, Nils3; Godinot, Marc1

Published Jun 30, 2026 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jm63xsjph

Data files

Jun 30, 2026 version files 379.32 MB

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Abstract

Pantodonts form an extinct group of herbivorous eutherian mammals. It contains 8 families for 23 genera, from the early Paleocene to the late Eocene, including Bemalambda, Barylambda, Titanoides, Pantolambda or Pantolambdodon. In Europe, one genus only is known, Coryphodon, with three species: C. eocaenus, C. anthracoideus and C. oweni. The Le Quesnoy material (Oise, Northern France, MP7) reported here offers a first opportunity to evaluate intraspecific and specific variability of the genus Coryphodon in Europe. With more than 150 dental and postcranial specimens, it is the most important assemblage for the genus in Europe. While describing this material, we have been able to observe an overlap between the presumed diagnostic character states of the three species C. eocaenus, C. anthracoideus and C. oweni (M3 entoconid more or less expressed, M3 lingual cingulum continuous or discontinuous). Moreover, a biometric approach reveals an overlap of body-size ranges for these three species, whereas this character was presumed diagnostic. Our study indeed supports that C. anthracoideus and C. oweni are synonymous with the type species Coryphodon eocaenus Owen, 1845, which therefore should be the only European species of Coryphodon. Finally, we developed the first cladistic and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses of the Coryphodontidae; they show the paraphyly of the genus Coryphodon, as well as a specialized bilophodont tendency within Coryphodontidae, which is particularly pronounced within later Asian genera (Eudinoceras, Asiocoryphodon, Hypercoryphodon and Heterocoryphodon).