File:Eotylopus reedi.jpg

English: Eotylopus reedi Matthew, 1910 - fossil mammal skeleton from the Oligocene of Wyoming, USA. (UW 216, University of Wyoming Geological Museum, Laramie, Wyoming, USA)

This is the holotype skeleton of the most complete oromerycid mammal every found. Oromerycids are a rare group of extinct mammals somewhat related to camels.

From museum signage: "Eotylopus reedi A very primitive camel from Early Oligocene rocks near Alcova, Wyoming.

Geographic Range: High Plains of Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska, Rio Grande Rift of New Mexico, Big Bend area of Texas, Jefferson River Basin of Montana, Simi Valley of southern California.

Adult Size: About 15 inches (38 cm ) at the shoulder.

Habitat and Diet: Forests. Browsing herbivore (leaf eater).

Characertistics: This skeleton (UW 216) of Eotylopus reedi is the most complete specimen of the Oromerycidae. Among the Tylopoda, the Oromerycidae are thought to be the most closely related to the Camelidae. The relationship to the camels is based on the auditory bulla (ear region), which is folded upon itself and filled with spongy bone. Compared to the camels, its skeleton and dentition are very unspecialized. The back part of the orbit is note completely closed, there is no opening in the skull in front of the orbit, the premolars are simple, blade-like teeth, and the molars lack accessory cusps and expanded grinding surfaces. Note the slender body and limbs, which presage the skeletal anatomy of the more derived camels.

This skeleton was found by W. H. Reed, the first curator of the University of Wyoming Geological Museum. Reed discovered the skeleton in rocks of the White River Formation near Alcova, Wyoming in the late 1800s or early 1900s. "

Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Tylopoda, Oromerycidae

Stratigraphy: White River Formation, Chadronian, Lower Oligocene

Locality: unrecorded/undisclosed site near Alcova, southeast-central Wyoming, USA

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See info. at:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oromerycidae