Prolistriodon, Pickford & Kaya & Tarhan & Erylmaz & Mayda, 2020

Pickford, Martin, Kaya, Tanju, Tarhan, Erhan, Erylmaz, Derya & Mayda, Serdar, 2020, Small Early Miocene Listriodont Suid (Artiodactyla: Mammalia) From Sabuncubeli (Manisa, Sw Anatolia), Turkey, Fossil Imprint 76 (2), pp. 325-337 : 326-329

Genus Prolistriodon gen. nov.

Ty p e s p e c i e s. Prolistriodon smyrnensis sp. nov.

D e r i v a t i o n o m i n i s. Pro - from the Greek for ‘before; primitive or early form’ and Listriodon VON MEYER, 1846 (spade tooth) a well-established Miocene suid genus.

Stehlin (1899: 286) used the word “ Prolistriodon ” (in quotation marks) while discussing canine morphology of Oligocene suids, but the intention was not to create a new genus but to postulate what the canine in an ancestral listriodont would look like. No description or diagnosis or indication (sensu Art. 12.2 of ICZN 1999) was accompanied with this “name” by Stehlin (1899), so even if this were supposed to be a conditionally described genus name (which

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does not seem probable because it was not connected with any particular specimen), the name was a nomen nudum. This means that the name Prolistrodon is not preoccupied and can be use as a valid name.

D i a g n o s i s. Small suid with incipient subdivisions in the apical margin of the I1/, small distal heel in I1/, conical tapering root in I1/, I3/ low-crowned and triangular in lingual view, i/2 tall with scoop-shaped depression on the distal half of the lingual surface, low-crowned i/3, p/2 with robust post-cristid, well-developed lingual prehypocrista in upper molars, buccal cingulum in upper molars, tendency towards lophodonty in the molars, double-cusped centrally positioned hypoconulid in m/3.

D i f f e r e n t i a l d i a g n o s i s. Prolistriodon differs from other listriodonts (Eurolistridon PICKFORD et MOYÀ- SOLÀ, 1995, Bunolistriodon ARAMBOURG, 1963 , Listriodon VON MEYER, 1846 ) by its smaller dimensions and by the less spade-like upper central incisors. It differs from palaeochoerines ( Palaeochoerus POMEL, 1847 ) by the low-crowned I3/ and i/3 and the presence of a buccal cingulum in the upper molars. Prolistriodon differs from similar-sized hyotheriines ( Aureliachoerus GINSBURG, 1974 , Hyotherium VON MEYER, 1834 , Sinapriculus LIU, FORTELIUS et PICKFORD, 2002 ) by the absence of a metacone in the upper central incisor. It differs from tetraconodonts by possessing unreduced anterior premolars. It differs from suines by the absence of a metacone in the upper central incisors. Prolistriodon differs from small kubanochoeres ( Nguruwe PICKFORD, 1986 , Kenyasus PICKFORD, 1986 ) by possessing low-crowned i/3 and well-developed postcrista in the upper premolars and postcristid in the lower premolars, buccal cingulum and lingual prehypocrista present in the upper molars. It differs from large kubanochoeres by its considerably smaller dimensions and by the less barrel-shaped root of the upper central incisor. Prolistriodon differs from Namachoerinae PICKFORD, 1995 , by its more bundont cheek dentition. It differs from Cainochoerinae PICKFORD, 1993 ( Cainochoerus PICKFORD, 1988 , Albanohyus GINSBURG, 1974 ) by its greater dimensions, the low-crowned i/3 and the presence of enamel on all sides of the incisor crowns.

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