''Allalmeia'' was a small

notoungulate Notoungulata is an extinct order of mammalian ungulates that inhabited South America from the early Paleocene to the Holocene, living from approximately 61 million to 11,000 years ago. Notoungulates were morphologically diverse, with forms resemb ...

mammal of around 3 kilograms. It lived in Mendoza Province,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

(

Divisadero Largo Formation __NOTOC__ Divisadero may refer to: Places Mexico * Divisadero, Chihuahua, a town on the Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico (Copper Canyon railroad) * Divisaderos, Sonora United States * Divisadero Street, in San Francisco * Divisadero Street, in ...

) during the

Late Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', "daw ...

. ''Allalmeia'' belonged to the

Oldfieldthomasiidae Oldfieldthomasiidae is an extinct family of notoungulate mammals known from the Late Paleocene to Late Eocene of South America. The family was classified by George Gaylord Simpson in 1945 and a synonym is Acoelodidae, defined by Florentino Ameghi ...

family within the suborder

Typotheria Typotheria is a suborder of the extinct mammalian order Notoungulata Notoungulata is an extinct order of mammalian ungulates that inhabited South America from the early Paleocene to the Holocene, living from approximately 61 million to 11,0 ...

.''Allalmeia''
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals ...

.org

Description

It was a small

digitigrade In terrestrial vertebrates, digitigrade () locomotion is walking or running on the toes (from the Latin ''digitus'', 'finger', and ''gradior'', 'walk'). A digitigrade animal is one that stands or walks with its toes (metatarsals) touching the groun ...

mammal, with

brachyodont The molars or molar teeth are large, flat teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammals. They are used primarily to grind food during chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, ''molaris dens'', meaning "millstone to ...

and lophobunodont teeth, teeth that have a combination of ridges (

lophodont The molars or molar teeth are large, flat teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammals. They are used primarily to grind food during chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, ''molaris dens'', meaning "millstone to ...

dentition) and cones (

bunodont The molars or molar teeth are large, flat teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammals. They are used primarily to grind food during chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, ''molaris dens'', meaning "millstone to ...

dentition). It had a generalized way of locomotion, that means, it could move easily in any terrain, but probably it preferred the safety of the forest trees where it lived. Although being an

ungulate Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraffes, cam ...

, ''Allalmeia'' had claws as the oldest mammals.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16529001 Typotheres Eocene mammals of South America Tinguirirican Divisaderan Paleogene Argentina Fossils of Argentina Fossil taxa described in 1946 Prehistoric placental genera