Abdounodus
genus of mammals
Abdounodus ("Abdoun tooth") is an extinct genus of mammal known from the middle Paleocene of Northern Africa. The sole species, A. hamdii, is known from teeth and jaw bones discovered in the Ouled Abdoun Basin of present-day Morocco in 2001.
Discovery and naming
Discovery
The holotype (MNHN PM21) of Abdounodus hamdii was collected in French fossil markets. It consists of a left mandible and teeth. A study in 2016 described new material that included the maxillary and upper dentition.
Naming
The generic name combines Abdoun referring to the place of origin and odus meaning tooth. The specific name hamdii is named after M. Mohamed Hamdi, who was an active supporter for paleontological research in the region.
Description
Abdounodus has dentition similar of that mioclaenids, but is differentiated by features such as the talonid being short and narrow, the posfossid being weakly excavated, the entoconid being quite large, lack of cingula, and a small and a inflated hypocounlid. The upper molars are noticeably bunodont with an inflated crown and bulbous cusps, and have 3 roots. There also features that support a meatconule-dervived pseudohypocone such as a absence of other conules aside from the metaconule-pseudohypocone.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as genus of mammals. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q20817538. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2001 and 2016.
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This entry incorporates text from “Abdounodus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.