Embrithopoda ("heavy-footed")- order of extinct mammals

Embrithopoda ("heavy-footed") is an order of extinct mammals known from Asia, Africa and eastern Europe. Most of the embrithopod genera are known exclusively from jaws and teeth dated from the late Paleocene to the late Eocene, but the order is best known from its terminal member, the elephantine Arsinoitherium.

While embrithopods bore a superficial resemblance to rhinoceroses, their horns had bony cores covered in keratinized skin and were not made of hair. Not all embrithopods possessed horns, either. Despite their appearance, they were related to elephants, not perissodactyls.

The Embrithopoda are tethytheres and are also believed to be part of the clade Afrotheria.

Fossils of embrithopods, such as Arsinoitherium, have been found in Egypt, Mongolia, Turkey, Romania, Namibia and Tunisia. Until the 1970s, only Arsinoitherium itself was known, appearing isolated in the fossil record.

McKenna & Manning 1977 and McKenna & Bell 1997 considered Phenacolophus from Mongolia a primitive embrithopod, but, though similarities certainly exist, this attribution has been challenged by several other authors.

Order Embrithopoda Andrews 1906 sensu Prothero & Schoch 1989 -Barypoda Andrews 1904

Family †Arsinoitheriidae Andrews 1904

Genus Namatherium blackcrowense Pickford et al., 2008

Genus †Arsinoitherium Beadnell 1902

†A. zitteli Beadnell 1902

†A. andrewsii Lankester 1903

†A. giganteus Sanders, Kappelman & Rasmussen 2004

Family †Palaeoamasiidae Şen & Heintz 1979

Genus †Hypsamasia seni Maas, Thewissen & Kappelman 1998

Genus †Palaeoamasia kansui Ozansoy 1966

Genus †Crivadiatherium Radulesco, Iliesco & Iliesco 1976

†C. iliescui Radulesco & Sudre 1985

†C. mackennai Radulesco, Iliesco & Iliesco 1976