Etymology
Serres named Mesotherium so due to his belief that it was an intermediate between rodents and pachyderms (or ungulates), due to its large upper incisors, and its size and proportions. "Serres—by a happy inspiration proposed calling it Mesotherium—as being a common centre towards which all mammalia got happily confounded," Hugh Falconer wrote Darwin in April 1863. "Bravard sent it home under the name of Typotherium as being the central type from which all mammals diverged." It was Serres' view that there was only one underlying animal type.
Despite Serres' having officially named the genus Mesotherium, it was known from the late 19th century to the early 20th century under the name "Typotherium", given it by the French palaeontologist living in Argentina, Auguste Bravard; under this name Bravard sent the skull he found to Paris, which led to the family being named Typotheriidae, and served as the basis for the order Typotheria. As the name "Mesotherium" had been published earlier in the same year as "Typotherium", Mesotherium was declared the valid name of the genus, (Simpson, 1980) and Mesotheriidae the valid name of the family. Nevertheless, as the rules do not apply to anything above the family, the name of the order Typotheria is still in use, but refers to a wider range of rodent-like notoungulates.
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