''Paramacrauchenia'' is an extinct genus of proterotheriid litopterns from the Early Miocene of what is now

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 ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. Its fossils have been found in the

Sarmiento Sarmiento may refer to: Places Argentina *Sarmiento Department, San Juan, a subdivision of the San Juan Province *Sarmiento Department, Santiago del Estero, a subdivision of the Santiago del Estero Province *Sarmiento Department, Chubut, a subdivi ...

and Santa Cruz Formations of Argentina and Chile.

Taxonomy

''Paramacrauchenia'' was originally assigned to the family

Macraucheniidae Macraucheniidae is a family in the extinct South American ungulate order Litopterna, that resembled various camelids. The reduced nasal bones of their skulls was originally suggested to have housed a small proboscis, similar to that of the sai ...

, however, recent studies now consider it a member of the family Proterotheriidae, where it is found to be a derived member, closely related to ''

Lambdaconus ''Lambdaconus'' is a genus of proterotheriid from the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene of Argentina. The type species is ''L. suinus'', named in 1897 by Ameghino, with referred species including ''L. lacerum'', named as ''Proterotherium ''Prot ...

''. Below is a phylogenetic tree of the Proterotheriidae, based on the work of McGrath ''et al''. 2020.

References

Proterotheriids Miocene mammals of South America Colhuehuapian Santacrucian Neogene Argentina Fossils of Argentina Neogene Chile Fossils of Chile Fossil taxa described in 1939 Prehistoric placental genera Golfo San Jorge Basin Sarmiento Formation {{Paleo-mammal-stub