Hilalia

Hilalia is an extinct genus of condylarth that lived during the Eocene. Fossils of Hilalia have been found at Uzunçarsidere Formation in Turkey.[1] It was the last surviving genus of Pleuraspidotheriids, which were previously thought to have gone extinct during the Late Palaeocene.[2]

Hilalia
Temporal range: Mid Eocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: †Condylarthra
Family: †Pleuraspidotheriidae
Genus: †Hilalia
Maas et al., 2001
Species
  • H. robusta
  • H. saribeya
  • H. selanneae
  • H. sezerorum

Taxonomy

Four species have been described, differing from each other primarily by size and premolar morphology.[1]

Species
  • Hilalia robusta
  • Hilalia saribeya
  • Hilalia selanneae
  • Hilalia sezerorum

Paleoecology

During the Eocene, Turkey is believed to have been an island ecosystem, harboring many taxa that had gone extinct on mainland areas earlier.[3]

Living alongside Hilalia were embrithopods and various metatherians, such as the predatory Anatoliadelphys.[4][5]

References
  1. Maas, M.C. (2001). "Enigmatic New Ungulates from the Early Middle Eocene of Central Anatolia, Turkey". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 21 (3): 578–590. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2001)021[0578:ENUFTE]2.0.CO;2. JSTOR 20061987.
  2. Métais, G. (2017). "Tarsal morphology of the pleuraspidotheriid mammal Hilalia from the middle Eocene of Turkey". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 62 (1): 173–179. doi:10.4202/app.00314.2016. hdl:1808/25201.
  3. Métais, G. (2018). "Eocene metatherians from Anatolia illuminate the assembly of an island fauna during Deep Time". PLOS ONE. 14 (2): e0212985. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0212985. PMC 6386525. PMID 30794714.
  4. A. Murat Maga; Robin M. D. Beck (2017). "Skeleton of an unusual, cat-sized marsupial relative (Metatheria: Marsupialiformes) from the middle Eocene (Lutetian: 44-43 million years ago) of Turkey". PLoS ONE. 12 (8): e0181712. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0181712.
  5. de Lazaro, Enrico. "Cat-Sized Marsupial Relative Lived in Turkey 43 Million Years Ago". Sci-news. Retrieved Aug 18, 2017.


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