ANCYLOPODA, or ANCYLODACTYLA  , an apparently primitive extinct subordinal group of Ungulata showing certain resemblances to the Perissodactyla, both as regards the cheek-teeth and the skeleton, but broadly distinguished by the feet being of an edentate type, carrying long curved and cleft terminal claws . From this peculiar structure of the feet it would seem that the weight of the body was mainly carried on their outer sides, as in Edentates . The group is typified by Chalicotherium, of which the original species was discovered in' the Lower Pliocene strata of Eppelsheim, Hesse-Darmstadt, in 1825, and named on the evidence of the teeth, the limbs being subsequently described as Macrotherium . The skull is short, with a dental formula of i., c.4-, p . . m . -, but in fully adult animals most of the front teeth were shed . The molar teeth recall those of Palaeosyops (see TITANOTHLRIIDAE) . Remains referred to Chalicotherium have been also obtained from the Lower Pliocene and Upper Miocene strata of Greece, Hungary, India, China and North America . A skull from Pikermi, near Mt . Pentelikon, Attica, shows the absence in the adult state of upper and lower incisors and upper canines, much the same condition being indicated in an Indian skull . There were three toes to each foot, and the femur lacked a third trochanter . Macrotherium, which is typically from the Middle Miocene of Sansan, in Gers, France, may indicate a distinct genus .

Limb-bones nearly resembling those of Macrotherium, but relatively stouter, have been described from the Pliocene beds of Attica and Samos as Ancylotherium . In America the names Morotherium and Moropus have been applied to similar bones, on the belief that they indicated edentates . Macrotherium magnum must have been an animal of about 9 ft. in length . The South American genus Homalodontotherium is often placed in the Ancylopoda, but reasons against this view are given in the article LITOPTERNA . Professor H . F . Osborn considers that the Ancylopoda are directly descended from the Condylarthra . See also H . F . Osborn, " The Ancylopoda Chalicotherium and Artionyx,"Amer . Nat . (1893), p .

118, and "Artionyx, a New Genus of Ancylopoda,"

Bull . Amer . Mus. vol. v. p . I (1893) . [N.B.—Artionyx was subsequently found to be an Artiodactyle.] (R .