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A NEW PALAEORYCTID (INSECTIVORA: MAMMALIA) FROM THE LATE PALEOCENE OF ALBERTA, CANADA

As recognized by McKenna and Bell (1997), the family Palaeoryctidae (Mammalia: Eutheria) includes three genera, Palaeoryctes Matthew, 1913 (Paleocene and Eocene), Aaptoryctes Gingerich, 1982 (late Paleocene), and Eoryctes Thewissen and Gingerich, 1989 (early Eocene). Each is North American, although Palaeoryctes is said to occur in North Africa as well (Gheerbrant, 1992; however, the classification of the North African species as a palaeoryctid is almost certainly erroneous [personal obsèrvation]), and there are additional, ostensible records of palaeoryctids from Asia, Africa, and Europe that have yet to be described (McKenna and Bell, 1997). In spite of this broad distribution, palaeoryctids are poorly known and documented primarily by isolated teeth, although occasionally better-preserved specimens are found. Palaeoryctids are classified together on the basis of dental resemblances, mostly those of the molars: palaeoryctid upper molars are anteroposteriorly short but transversely wide (especially lingual to the paracone+metacone), the major cusps are tall and pointed, and the paracone and metacone are connate, i.e., they arise from a common base and are joined through much of their height. The lower molar trigonid of palaeoryctids is anteroposteriorly short and the trigonid cusps tall, the talonid tends to be labiolingually narrow and skewed labially relative to the trigonid, and shearing crests are strongly developed on upper and lower teeth. The dental evidence suggests that although palaeoryctids were small in body size, they were predaceous. They probably subsisted on insects and other small terrestrial invertebrates and perhaps even on small vertebrates.