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New remains and species of the ‘condylarth’ genus Escribania (Mammalia: Didolodontidae) from the Palaeocene of Patagonia, Argentina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2008

Javier N. Gelfo
Affiliation:
División Paleontología Vertebrados, Museo de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n, B1900FWA La Plata, Argentina. E-mail: jgelfo@fcnym.unlp.edu.ar
Edgardo Ortiz-Jaureguizar
Affiliation:
LASBE (Laboratorio de Sistemática y Biología Evolutiva) Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Paseo del Bosque s/n, B1900FWA, Argentina Museo Paleontológico ‘Egidio Feruglio’, Fontana 140, U9100GYO Trelew, Argentina
Guillermo W. Rougier
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, University of Louisville Health Science Center, 500 S. Preston, Louisville, KY 40292

Abstract

The Punta Peligro fauna includes some of the oldest Cenozoic South American mammals, and the oldest ones for Patagonia. In addition to frogs, turtles, and crocodiles, an unusual mammalian assemblage is formed by a mixture of Mesozoic lineages of Gondwanan origin and therians (eutherians and metatherians) derived from Laurasian immigrants. This paper describes new remains of the Didolodontidae ‘condylarth’ genus Escribania Bonaparte, Van Valen & Kramarz, 1993. The new material includes an isolated right lower third molar with talonid morphology different from the homologous structure of the type species Escribania chubutensis Bonaparte, Van Valen & Kramarz, 1993, justifying the recognition of a new species. The derived nature of the didolodontid ‘condylarths’ from the Banco Negro Inferior, their differences with the Mioclaenidae Kollpaniinae from the early Paleocene of Tiupampa, and the record of bona fide litoptherns in the Banco Negro Inferior (BNI) suggest an early radiation of the panameriungulates.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 2007

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