Adianthidae

Description

Adianthids were actively mobile herbivores. They were small in size when compared to most litopterns. Most species did not exceed the size of a cat. Although small in size, the adianthids showed dental features that were already specialized even in the Oligocene genera. The molars were equipped with ridges, and the upper molars were provided with crescent-shaped metacones and paracones, with a columnar parastyle and a very reduced or absent mesostyle. The lower fourth premolar was provided with a crested talonid, and the lower molars were double crescent-shaped or nearly so. The upper fourth premolar was molar-shaped, and the teeth from the third premolar to the upper third molar had three primary dimples and (in the more derived forms) a few accessory dimples behind the prostylar cingulum in front of the cingulum of the postipocone.