Metriotherium

Metriotherium is an extinct genus of artiodactyls belonging to the basal family Dichobunidae. It was endemic to western Europe and lived from the Early to Late Oligocene. Metriotherium and its type species M. mirabile were first named by the French naturalist Henri Filhol in 1882, although it was originally named "Mesotherium" in 1880, a name that had been preoccupied decades prior by a separate mammal genus in South America. In total, there are four valid species assigned to the genus.

In comparison to its likely ancestor Dichobune, Metriotherium consists mainly of larger-sized species relative to other members of the Dichobuninae and had selenodont (crescent-like ridges) dentition. It is defined as a distinct dichobunine genus on the basis of some very specific dental morphologies, with some species being known only from isolated dental remains. Whereas the earliest-appearing species M. minutum and the latest M. sarelense were recorded to be smaller-sized species, M. mirabile, with a temporal range occurring roughly in between the two species, was larger in size. It lived in humid but seasonal climates and only briefly overlapped in range with Dichobune in the Early Oligocene before being the last dichobunid known to have existed in Europe up to the Late Oligocene.