''Notostylops'' ("south pillar face") is a genus of extinct South American ungulates from

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'', " ...

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 ...

. Fossils of the genus have been found in the Sarmiento, Casamayor, Andesitas Huancache and Koluel Kaike Formations.''Notostylops''
at Fossilworks.org Image:Notostylopss.png, Size comparison of ''Notostylops murinus'' with a human. Image:Notostylops murinus Wikipedia Juandertal.jpg, Life reconstruction.

Description

''Notostylops'' was a very generalized animal, very similar to first eutherians and ungulates. It would have superficially resembled a marmot or a wombat and is suspected to have browsed on low-growing plants. It was probably adapted to a fairly wide range of

ecological niche In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition. Three variants of ecological niche are described by It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (for ...

s, but its robustness indicates it had same digging traits. Its tall

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...

housed

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

-like

incisor Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, wher ...

teeth. ''Notostylops'' was about long.

References

* Notoungulates Prehistoric placental genera Eocene mammals of South America Divisaderan Mustersan Casamayoran Paleogene Argentina Fossils of Argentina Fossil taxa described in 1897 Taxa named by Florentino Ameghino Golfo San Jorge Basin Sarmiento Formation {{paleo-mammal-stub