Description

Cainotherium laticurvatum

Miocene

Saint Gerand le Puy Allier, France.

Complete 800mm skeleton.

Mammal.  Ungulate.

Cainotherium is an extinct genus of artiodactyl (even-toed ungulate) mammal that lived during the Early Miocene in Europe.  It is surprising rabbit-like in form very similar to the earliest-known artiodactyl (Diacodexis) so its family, the Cainotheriidae (Late Eocene to Middle Miocene), may descend directly from an Early Eocene group.