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Eoastrapostylops: now closer to chalicotheres than to astrapotheres + elephants

Sunday, August 9, 2026 12:09

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According to Wikipedia/Eoastrapostylops
(Fig 1) is an extinct genus of astrapothere that lived during the Late Paleocene in what is now Argentina. We looked at the baseball-sized skull of Eoastrapostylops earlier (May 2026) here.

Figure 1. Eoastrapostylops skull and diagram of same. In the LRT this taxon nests basal to chalicotheres, sisters to elephants. MacPhee et al 2021 considered this skull ‘too damaged for interpretation.”

This interrelationship is confirmed
in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2340 taxa) – with this proviso: Eoastrapostylops nests one node over, at the base of the chalicotheres, a sister clade to astrapotheres, which gave rise to elephants, all derived from something close to Meniscotherium.

Anisodon
(Fig 2) is a large basal chalicothere. It retains several traits inherited from Eoastrapostylops, but Anisodon has only three fingers and three toes, two fewer than astrapotheres and elephants. So let’s look for a

Note the highly placed naris topped by a trianglular overhanging nasal on a skull that is taller than widel in both Anisodon and Astrapotherium.

Figure 2 Anisodon grande had longer forelimbs than hind limbs.

The clues were always there, but hidden.
Taxa that were not scored for a

FIgure 3. Elephant ancestor in the LRT, Astrapotherium to scale with related Astroponotus.

Apparently no one has proposed
a close interrelationship between chalicotheres, astrapotheres and elephants. So this appears to be a novel hypothesis of interrelationships. If not, please provide a citation so I can promote it here.

References
Soria MF and Powell E 1981. Un primitivo Astrapotheria (Mammalia) y la edad de la Formación Río Loro, provincia de Tucumán, República Argentina. Ameghiniana 18(3-4):155-168.

reptileevolution.com/meniscotherium
wiki/Meniscotherium
wiki/Thomashuxleya
wiki/Periphragnis
wiki/Eoastrapostylops

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eoastrapostylops

Eoastrapostylops enters the LRT following Meniscotherium

Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2026/08/09/eoastrapostylops-now-closer-to-chalicotheres-than-to-astrapotheres-elephants/

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