Lophiodontidae

Lophiodontidae is a family of browsing, herbivorous, mammals in the Perissodactyla suborder Ancylopoda. They lived in Southern Europe during the Eocene epoch. Previously thought to be related to tapirs, it is now thought that they were most likely related to early chalicotheres, although they are distinct from that group.

Lophiodon is an extinct genus of perissodactyls and the type genus of the Lophiodontidae, one of two major clades of the extinct suborder Ancylopoda. It, like the rest of the family, was endemic to western Europe and lived from the Early to Middle Eocene. Fossils of Lophiodon were first studied in 1804 when the French palaeontologist Georges Cuvier thought that they belonged to tapirs. After initially classifying the formally recognized species to Palaeotherium in 1812, Cuvier named the genus in 1822 based on the hill-like cusps on its molars. Many fossil species were named and assigned to Lop