Toxodon - right side of lower jaw - fragment
Specimen number: NHMUK PV M 16566
Specimen Link: http://data.nhm.ac.uk/object/8f3f5253-4231-4dd2-a932-1a2330025293
Taxon: Toxodon
Description: Fragment of right side of the lower jaw with 5 cheek teeth (partial right p1-3 and left m1-2) and fragments of 5 anterior teeth or incisors (right i1-3 and left i1-2)
Site: Punta Alta, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
Age: Late Pleistocene i.e., between 126,000 and 11,700 years old
Collection: Probably found in September or October 1832 by Charles Darwin (specific date was not recorded)
Comments: When describing this jaw in 1838-1840, Richard Owen was unsure whether to allocate this to the same species as the cranium found in Uruguay (specimen number NHMUK PV M 16560). In 1866, Herman Burmeister gave it a new species name: Toxodon darwinii with the species named after Charles Darwin, who found the specimen. Toxodon darwinii probably represents the same species as Toxodon platensis. This is the only fossil mammal specimen with Darwin's original field number still attached.
Toxodon is an extinct herbivorous (plant eating) mammal from South America. It is often reconstructed to look like a cross between a hippopotamus and a rhinoceros, although it is not closely related to either. It was first described by Richard Owen based on specimens collected by Charles Darwin on the Voyage of the Beagle.
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| Last updated | unknown |
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| License | Creative Commons Non-Commercial (Any) |
| Created | 7 years ago |
| id | f53623fc-0b45-41be-b65b-df4d24a59f3a |
| linked specimen | 8f3f5253-4231-4dd2-a932-1a2330025293 |
| metadata modified | 4 years ago |
| package id | ffd2d455-c0e5-4eb6-85c3-da8ed1e088d3 |
| position | 5 |
| resource group | $genus |
| state | active |