query: parent_taxon anthracotheriidae
supports: Tusks are elongated, continuously growing front teeth, usually but not always in pairs, that protrude well beyond the mouth of certain mammal species. They are most commonly canines, as with warthogs, pig, and walruses, or, in the case of elephants, elongated incisors. In most tusked species both the males and the females have tusks although the males' are larger. Tusks are generally curved, though the narwhal's sole tusk is straight and has a helical structure. In the elephant, the tusks were originally second incisors. Continuous growth is enabled by formative tissues in the apical openings of the roots of the teeth. In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system, such as an animal, plant, fungus, archaeon, or bacterium. All known types of organisms are capable of some degree of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development and homeostasis. An organism consists of one or more cells; when it has one cell it is known as a unicellular organism; and when it has more than one it is known as a multicellular organism. Most unicellular organisms are of microscopic scale and are thus loosely described as microorganisms. Humans are multicellular organisms composed of many trillions of cells grouped into specialized tissues and organs. Cetacea are a widely distributed and diverse clade of aquatic mammals that today consists of the whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Cetaceans are carnivorous and finned. Most species live in the sea, some in rivers. The name is derived from the Latin "cetus" "whale" and Greek "ketos" "huge fish". Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797  22 February 1875) was a British lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day. He is best known as the author of "Principles of Geology", which popularized James Hutton's concepts of uniformitarianismthe idea that the Earth was shaped by the same processes still in operation today. "Principles of Geology" also challenged theories popularized by Georges Cuvier, which were the most accepted and circulated ideas about geology in England at the time. Asia is Earth's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres and sharing the continental landmass of Eurasia with the continent of Europe. Asia covers an area of , about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilizations. Asia is notable for not only its overall large size and population, but also dense and large settlements as well as vast barely populated regions within the continent of 4.4 billion people. Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure. Coal is composed primarily of carbon, along with variable quantities of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. A fossil fuel, coal forms when dead plant matter is converted into peat, which in turn is converted into lignite, then sub-bituminous coal, after that bituminous coal, and lastly anthracite. This involves biological and geological processes that take place over time. Anthracotherium ("Coal Beast") was a genus of extinct artiodactyl ungulate mammals, characterized by having 44 teeth, with five semi-crescentic cusps on the crowns of the upper molars. The genus ranged from the early Eocene period until the late Oligocene, having a distribution throughout Eurasia. The last species died out near the end of the Oligocene. The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's oceans with a total area of about . It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earth's surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area. It separates the "Old World" from the "New World". Toulouse is the capital city of the southwestern French department of Haute-Garonne, as well as of the Occitanie region. The city lies on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean, and from Paris. It is the fourth-largest city in France with 466,297 inhabitants in January 2014. 
  The Toulouse Metro area is, with 1 312 304 inhabitants as of 2014, France's 4th metropolitan area after Paris, Lyon and Marseille and ahead of Lille and Bordeaux. The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present (to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the epoch are slightly uncertain. The name Oligocene comes from the Ancient Greek ("oligos", few) and ("kainos", new), and refers to the sparsity of extant forms of molluscs. The Oligocene is preceded by the Eocene Epoch and is followed by the Miocene Epoch. The Oligocene is the third and final epoch of the Paleogene Period.
  The Oligocene is often considered an important time of transition, a link between the archaic world of the tropical Eocene and the more modern ecosystems of the Miocene. Major changes during the Oligocene included a global expansion of grasslands, and a regression of tropical broad leaf forests to the equatorial belt. A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig and its ancestor, the common Eurasian wild boar ("Sus scrofa"), along with other species; related creatures outside the genus include the peccary, the babirusa, and the warthog. Pigs, like all suids, are native to the Eurasian and African continents. Juvenile pigs are known as piglets. Pigs are highly social and intelligent animals. The Neogene is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. The Neogene is sub-divided into two epochs, the earlier Miocene and the later Pliocene. Some geologists assert that the Neogene cannot be clearly delineated from the modern geological period, the Quaternary. The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words (', less) and (', new) and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene Epoch and is followed by the Pliocene Epoch. Elephants are large mammals of the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea. Two species are traditionally recognised, the African elephant ("Loxodonta africana") and the Asian elephant ("Elephas maximus"), although some evidence suggests that African bush elephants and African forest elephants are separate species ("L. africana" and "L. cyclotis" respectively). Elephants are scattered throughout sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Elephantidae is the only surviving family of the order Proboscidea; other, now extinct, members of the order include deinotheres, gomphotheres, mammoths, and mastodons. Male African elephants are the largest extant terrestrial animals and can reach a height of and weigh . All elephants have several distinctive features, the most notable of which is a long trunk or proboscis, used for many purposes, particularly breathing, lifting water, and grasping objects. Their incisors grow into tusks, which can serve as weapons and as tools for moving objects and digging. Elephants' large ear flaps help to control their body temperature. Their pillar-like legs can carry their great weight. African elephants have larger ears and concave backs while Asian elephants have smaller ears and convex or level backs. Paris (French: ) is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of and a population in 2013 of 2,229,621 within its administrative limits. The city is both a commune and department, and forms the centre and headquarters of the Île-de-France, or Paris Region, which has an area of and a population in 2014 of 12,005,077, comprising 18.2 percent of the population of France. Libycosaurus ("Lizard of Libya") was one of the last anthracothere genera. It lived from the Middle to the Late Miocene, and ranged throughout Central and Northern Africa, and in Uganda, in what was then a lush, marshy environment. The transition between the end of the Eocene and the beginning of the Oligocene is marked by large-scale extinction and floral and faunal turnover (although minor in comparison to the largest mass extinctions). Most of the affected organisms were marine or aquatic in nature. They included the last of the ancient cetaceans, the Archaeoceti. The Phanerozoic Eon (British English Phanærozoic) is the current geologic eon in the geologic time scale, and the one during which abundant animal and plant life has existed. It covers million years to the present, and began with the Cambrian Period when diverse hard-shelled animals first appeared. Its name was derived from the Ancient Greek words (phanerós) and (z), meaning "visible life", since it was once believed that life began in the Cambrian, the first period of this eon. The time before the Phanerozoic, called the "Precambrian" supereon, is now divided into the Hadean, Archaean and Proterozoic eons. Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia (also called Metazoa). The animal kingdom emerged as a basal clade within Apoikozoa as a sister of the choanoflagellates. Sponges are the most basal clade of animals. Animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently at some point in their lives. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later in their lives. All animals are heterotrophs: they must ingest other organisms or their products for sustenance. Tertiary is the former term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.58 million years ago, a time span that lies between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary. The Tertiary is no longer recognized as a formal unit by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, but the word is still widely used. The traditional span of the Tertiary has been divided between the Paleogene and Neogene Periods and extends to the first stage of the Pleistocene Epoch, the Gelasian age. 
  The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the CretaceousPaleogene extinction event, at the start of the Cenozoic Era, and extended to the beginning of the Quaternary glaciation at the end of the Pliocene Epoch. The Pliocene (also Pleiocene) Epoch is the epoch in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58 million years BP. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch. Prior to the 2009 revision of the geologic time scale, which placed the four most recent major glaciations entirely within the Pleistocene, the Pliocene also included the Gelasian stage, which lasted from 2.588 to 1.806 million years ago, and is now included in the Pleistocene. Merycopotamus is an extinct genus of Asian anthracothere that appeared during the Middle Miocene, and died out in the Late Pliocene. At the height of the genus' influence, species ranged throughout southern Asia. With the extinction of the last species, "M. dissimilis", the lineage of anthracotheres came to an end. "Merycopotamus" was closely related to the anthracothere genus "Libycosaurus", which, unlike the former, never left Africa. In fact, some African fossils originally placed in "Merycopotamus", but are now referred to "Libycosaurus". The common hippopotamus ("Hippopotamus amphibius"), or hippo, is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae, the other being the pygmy hippopotamus ("Choeropsis liberiensis" or "Hexaprotodon liberiensis"). The name comes from the ancient Greek for "river horse". After the elephant and rhinoceros, the common hippopotamus is the third-largest type of land mammal and the heaviest extant artiodactyl. Despite their physical resemblance to pigs and other terrestrial even-toed ungulates, the closest living relatives of the Hippopotamidae are cetaceans (whales, porpoises, etc.) from which they diverged about . The common ancestor of whales and hippos split from other even-toed ungulates around . The earliest known hippopotamus fossils, belonging to the genus "Kenyapotamus" in Africa, date to around . Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most-populous continent. At about 30.3 million km² (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20.4 % of its total land area. With 1.1 billion people as of 2013, it accounts for about 15% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos. It contains 54 fully recognized sovereign states (countries), nine territories and two "de facto" independent states with limited or no recognition. A genus ( genera) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms in biology. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus. Ungulates (pronounced ) are any members of a diverse group of primarily large mammals that includes odd-toed ungulates such as horses and rhinoceroses, and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraffes, camels, deer, and hippopotami. Most terrestrial ungulates use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving. The term means, roughly, "being hoofed" or "hoofed animal". As a descriptive term, "ungulate" normally excludes cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises), as they do not possess most of the typical morphological characteristics of ungulates, but recent discoveries indicate that they are descended from early artiodactyls. Ungulates are typically herbivorous (though some species are omnivorous, such as pigs), and many employ specialized gut bacteria to allow them to digest cellulose, as in the case of ruminants. They inhabit a wide range of habitats, from jungles, plains and rivers. Nice (; Niçard , classical norm, or "", nonstandard,  ) is the fifth most populous city in France and the capital of the Alpes-Maritimes "département". The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of about 1 million on an area of . Located in the French Riviera, on the south east coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, at the foot of the Alps, Nice is the second-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast and the second-largest city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region after Marseille. Nice is about 13 kilometres (8 miles) from the principality of Monaco, and its airport is a gateway to the principality as well. North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. They are an informal grouping within the infraorder Cetacea, usually excluding dolphins and porpoises. Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to the order Cetartiodactyla with even-toed ungulates and their closest living relatives are the hippopotamuses, having diverged about 40 million years ago. The two parvorders of whales, baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti), are thought to have split apart around 34 million years ago. The whales comprise eight extant families: Balaenopteridae (the rorquals), Balaenidae (right whales), Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale), Eschrichtiidae (the gray whale), Monodontidae (belugas and narwhals), Physeteridae (the sperm whale), Kogiidae (the dwarf and pygmy sperm whale), and Ziphiidae (the beaked whales). Porpoises are a group of fully aquatic marine mammals that are sometimes referred to as mereswine, all of which are classified under the family Phocoenidae, parvorder Odontoceti (toothed whales). There are six extant species of porpoise. They are small toothed whales that are very closely related to oceanic dolphins. The most obvious visible difference between the two groups is that porpoises have shorter beaks and flattened, spade-shaped teeth distinct from the conical teeth of dolphins. Porpoises, and other cetaceans, belong to the clade Cetartiodactyla with even-toed ungulates, and their closest living relatives are the hippopotamuses, having diverged from them about 40 million years ago. Lyon or (more archaically) Lyons (or  ) is a city in east-central France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, about from Paris and from Marseille. Inhabitants of the city are called "Lyonnais". Anthracotheriidae is a family of extinct , hippopotamus - like artiodactyl ungulates related to hippopotamuses and whales . The oldest genus , Elomeryx , first appeared during the middle Eocene in Asia . They thrived in Africa and Eurasia , with a few species ultimately entering North America during the Oligocene . They died out in Europe and Africa during the Miocene , possibly due to a combination of climatic changes and competition with other artiodactyls , including pigs and true hippopotamuses . The youngest genus , Merycopotamus , died out in Asia during the late Pliocene . The family is named after the first genus discovered , Anthracotherium , which means `` coal beast '' , as the first fossils of it were found in Paleogene - aged coal beds in France . Fossil remains of the anthracothere genus were discovered by the Harvard University and Geological Survey of Pakistan joint research project ( Y - GSP ) in the well - dated middle and late Miocene deposits of the Pothohar Plateau in northern Pakistan . In life , the average anthracothere would have resembled a skinny hippopotamus with a comparatively small , narrow head and most likely pig - like in general appearance . They had four or five toes on each foot , and broad feet suited to walking on soft mud . They had full sets of about 44 teeth with five semicrescentric cusps on the upper molars , which , in some species , were adapted for digging up the roots of aquatic plants . Deer (singular and plural) are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the fallow deer and the chital, and the Capreolinae, including the elk, reindeer (caribou), the Western roe deer, and the Eurasian elk (moose). Female reindeer, and male deer of all species (except the Chinese water deer), grow and shed new antlers each year. In this they differ from permanently horned antelope, which are in the same order, Artiodactyla. The pygmy hippopotamus ("Choeropsis liberiensis" or "Hexaprotodon liberiensis") is a small hippopotamid which is native to the forests and swamps of West Africa, primarily in Liberia with small populations in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Ivory Coast. A rhinoceros (meaning "nose horn"), often abbreviated to rhino, is one of any five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae, as well as any of the numerous extinct species. Two of these extant species are native to Africa and three to Southern Asia. The North Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean located between Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. An epeiric (or "shelf") sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around . Mammals are any vertebrates within the class Mammalia (from Latin "mamma" "breast"), a clade of endothermic amniotes distinguished from reptiles and birds by the possession of a neocortex (a region of the brain), hair, three middle ear bones and mammary glands. The sister group of mammals may be the extinct "Haldanodon." The mammals represent the only living Synapsida, which together with the Sauropsida form the Amniota clade. The mammals consist of the Yinotheria including monotrema and the Theriiformes including the theria. Binomial nomenclature (also called binominal nomenclature or binary nomenclature) is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages. Such a name is called a binomial name (which may be shortened to just "binomial"), a binomen or a scientific name; more informally it is also called a Latin name. The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs; the second part identifies the species within the genus. For example, humans belong to the genus "Homo" and within this genus to the species "Homo sapiens". The "formal" introduction of this system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus, effectively beginning with his work "Species Plantarum" in 1753. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1623, had introduced in his book "Pinax theatri botanici" (English, "Illustrated exposition of plants") many names of genera that were later adopted by Linnaeus. The Cretaceous is a geologic period and system that spans 79 million years from the end of the Jurassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Paleogene Period Mya. It is the last period of the Mesozoic Era. The Cretaceous Period is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation "Kreide" (chalk). Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae), however sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica. Grasslands are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. For example, there are five terrestrial ecoregion classifications (subdivisions) of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (ecosystem), which is one of eight terrestrial ecozones of the Earth's surface. Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara desert. According to the UN, it consists of all African countries that are fully or partially located south of the Sahara. It contrasts with North Africa, whose territories are part of the League of Arab states within the Arab world. Somalia, Djibouti, Comoros and Mauritania are geographically in Sub-Saharan Africa, but are likewise Arab states and part of the Arab world. The Paleogene (or ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Neogene Period Mya. It is the beginning of the Cenozoic Era of the present Phanerozoic Eon. The Paleogene is most notable for being the time during which mammals diversified from relatively small, simple forms into a large group of diverse animals in the wake of the CretaceousPaleogene extinction event that ended the preceding Cretaceous Period.  Elomeryx is an extinct genus of artiodactyl ungulate, and is among the earliest known anthracotheres. The genus was extremely widespread, first being found in Asia in the middle Eocene, in Europe during the latest Eocene, and having spread to North America by the early Oligocene.
  "Elomeryx" was about in body length, and had a long, vaguely horse-like head. It had small tusks which it used to uproot plants, and spoon-shaped incisors ideal for pulling and cropping water plants. "Elomeryx" had five-toed hind legs and four-toed front legs, resulting in wide feet which made it easier to walk on soft mud. It probably had similar habits to the modern hippopotamus, to which it may have been related. A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in size to smallest, they are: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. In geology, areas of continental crust include regions covered with water. The Sahara (", 'the Greatest Desert') is the largest hot desert and the third largest desert in the world after Antarctica and the Arctic. Its area of is comparable to the area of the United States. France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans and had a total population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary semi-presidential republic with the capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse and Bordeaux. French Guiana (pronounced or ), officially called Guiana, is an overseas department and region of France, located on the north Atlantic coast of South America in the Guyanas. It borders Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west. Its area has a very low population density of only 3 inhabitants per km, with half of its 244,118 inhabitants in 2013 living in the metropolitan area of Cayenne, its capital. By land area, it is the second largest region of France and the largest outermost region within the European Union. Hexaprotodon is a genus of Hippopotamidae that is sometimes applied to the pygmy hippopotamus. Pygmy hippos may be classified as either "Choeropsis liberiensis" or "Hexaprotodon liberiensis". The name "Hexaprotodon" means "six front teeth" as some of the fossil forms have three pairs of incisors.
  The genus Hexaprotodon also includes a number of rarely studied extinct species from Asia, sometimes labeled "Asian Hippopotami." Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in Africa and a founding member of the East African Community (EAC). Its capital and largest city is Nairobi. Kenya's territory lies on the equator and overlies the East African Rift covering a diverse and expansive terrain that extends roughly from Lake Victoria to Lake Turkana (formerly called Lake Rudolf) and further south-east to the Indian Ocean. It is bordered by Tanzania to the south and southwest, Uganda to the west, South Sudan to the north-west, Ethiopia to the north and Somalia to the north-east. Kenya covers , and had a population of approximately 45 million people in July 2014. Invertebrates are animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a "backbone" or "spine"), derived from the notochord. This includes all animals apart from the subphylum Vertebrata. Familiar examples of invertebrates include insects; crabs, lobsters and their kin; snails, clams, octopuses and their kin; starfish, sea-urchins and their kin; and worms. The Eocene Epoch, lasting from , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope C. The end is set at a major extinction event called the "Grande Coupure" (the "Great Break" in continuity) or the EoceneOligocene extinction event, which may be related to the impact of one or more large bolides in Siberia and in what is now Chesapeake Bay. As with other geologic periods, the strata that define the start and end of the epoch are well identified, though their exact dates are slightly uncertain.
candidates: amniota animal archaeoceti area areas artiodactyla babirusa bacteria balaenidae cetacea choeropsis cyperaceae deer elephantidae hexaprotodon hippopotamus homo human idea insects juncaceae lizard loxodonta mammal metazoa monodontidae mya neogene odontoceti paris peccary physeteridae pig plant rhinoceros sauropsida suidae theria ungulate vertebrata victoria ziphiidae
answer: artiodactyla