A PALEOCENE PROBOSCIDEAN FROM MOROCCO

UNTIL, recently, the oldest known Arabo-African fossils of the elephan t order (Proboscidea) were scarce Moeritherium-like remains from the M iddle Eocene epoch of Mali(1) and Senegal(2). In 1984 the discovery in Algeria of Numidotherium koholense(3) pushed back the record to the l ate Early Eocene. Here we report the discovery of a new genus in the l ate Palaeocene (Thanetian) epoch of Morocco (Ouled Abdoun Basin), abou t 7 million years older than Numidotherium, The new specimen is not On ly the oldest and smallest known proboscidean, but also the first mode rn ungulate from pre-Eocene strata. Though indirect data support an ea rly eutherian radiation, close to the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary, th is is also among the very few known occurrences of modern placental or ders before the Eocene. Unexpectedly, it belongs to what is, according to current phylo genetic studies(4,5), one of the most derived euther ian orders, providing new evidence for a very early radiation of moder n orders of placentals.