Arcanotherium is an extinct genus of early proboscidean belonging to the family Numidotheriidae that lived in North Africa during the late Eocene/early Oligocene interval.
Taxonomy Arcanotherium was originally described by Court (1995) as a new species of Numidotherium, N. savagei, based on a mandible found in the late 1960s in late Eocene deposits at Dor el Talha, Libya.N. Court. 1995. A new species of Numidotherium (Mammalia, Proboscidea) from the Eocene of Libya and the early phylogeny of the Proboscidea. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 15(3):650-671. However, after the Barytherium material from Libya became accessible to paleontologists, undescribed material from the collection prompted Delmer (2009) to erect Arcanotherium for N. savagei.C. Delmer. 2009. Reassessment of the generic attribution of Numidotherium savagei and the homologies of lower incisors in proboscideans. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 54(4):561-580
Phylogeny Below is a phylogenetic tree of early Proboscidea, based on the work of Hautier et al. (2021).
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