Class Mammalia
Order Rodentia
Family Cricetidae
Subfamily Neotominae
Neotoma (Paraneotoma) was described by Hibbard (1967):
Paraneotoma subgenus nov.
Type.—Parahodomys quadriplicatus Hibbard 1941.
Characters of the subgenus.-Neotoma (Paraneotoma) quadriplicatus
Hibbard differs from all other Recent Neotoma in having
shorter crowned teeth and thicker enamel. The anterocone of M1
is narrower. Some M1s in the early stage of wear have a shallow
anteromedian groove. The paracone, hypocone, and metacone of
M1 and M2 are more distinct as individual cusps than in Recent
species. In Paraneotoma they wear to form a C-shaped occlusal
pattern. Not all M3s consist of four parts separated by four reentrant
angles as shown by Hibbard (1941, pl. 2, figs. 4, 6, and 8).
Some unworn M3s lack the posterior internal reentrant angle and
wear to a normal pattern as in Recent species. All of the upper
molars possess better developed roots and the two posterior roots
are not fused in old adults.
M3 has a distinctive S pattern as in the subgenus Hodomys,
though the enamel is thicker and the reentrant angles broader
and shallower. The anterolabial reentrant angle is much shallower
in Paraneotoma.
Sites.
Late Blancan/Early Irvingtonian: Elsinore: Mimomys (Pajak et al. 1996).
Early Irvingtonian: Gypsum Ridge (Wagner and Prothero 2001).
Literature. Hibbard 1967; Pajak et al. 1996; Wagner and Prothero 2001.
Last Update: 21 Apr 2014