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GANODONTA (so named from the presence...

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 454 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GANODONTA (so named from the presence of bands of See also:enamel on the See also:teeth)  , a See also:group of specialized See also:North See also:American See also:Lower and See also:Middle See also:Eocene mammals of uncertain See also:affinity . The group includes Hemiganus, Psittacotherium and Conoryctes from the Puerco, Calamodon and Hemiganus from the Wasatch, and Stylinodon from the Bridger Eocene . With the exception of Conoryctes, in which it is longer, the See also:skull is See also:short and suggests affinity to the sloths, as does what little is known of the See also:limb-bones . The dentition, too, is of a type which might well be considered ancestral to that of the See also:Edentata . For instance, the molars when first See also:developed have tritubercular summits, but these soon become worn away, leaving tall columnar crowns, with a subcircular See also:surface of dentine exposed at the See also:summit of each . Moreover, while the earlier types have a comparatively full See also:series of See also:teeth, all of which are rooted and invested with See also:enamel, in the later forms the incisors are lost, the cheek-teeth never develop roots but grow continuously throughout See also:life . These and other features induced Dr J . L . Wortman to regard the See also:Ganodonta as an ancestral suborder of Edentata; but this view is not accepted by Prof . W . B . See also:Scott .

Teeth See also:

provision-ally assigned to Calamodon have been obtained from the Lower See also:Tertiary deposits of See also:Switzerland . See J . L . Wortman, " The Ganodonta and their Relationship to the Edentata," See also:Bull . Amer . See also:Mus. vol. ix. p . 59 (1897); W . B . Scott, Mlammalia of the See also:Santa Cruz Beds, Edentata," See also:Rep . See also:Princeton Exped. to See also:Patagonia, vol. v . (1903-1904) . (R .

End of Article: GANODONTA (so named from the presence of bands of enamel on the teeth)
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