''Pseudotypotherium'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

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 ...

s, belonging to 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 ...

. It lived from the Late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

to the Late

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

Description

This animal, like all the typotheres, was superficially similar to a

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 ...

. It was close to the size of a

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...

, and ''Pseudotypotherium'' is considered as one of the largest known Typotheres. It is known from several skeletons and skulls, and it is therefore possible to reconstruct faithfully its appearance.

Classification

The genus ''Pseudotypotherium'' was first described in 1904 by

Florentino Ameghino Florentino Ameghino (born Giovanni Battista Fiorino Giuseppe Ameghino September 19, 1853 – August 6, 1911) was an Argentine naturalist, paleontologist, anthropologist and zoologist, whose fossil discoveries on the Argentine Pampas, especially ...

, based on fossil remains found in

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 ...

in Late Pliocene terrains. Among the best known species is the type species ''P. pulchrum'', from the Late Pliocene, and the older species ''P. subinsigne'' and ''P. carhuense'' from the Late Miocene. Fossils attributed to the genus have also been found in Bolivia. ''Pseudotypotherium'' was a typical member of

, a clade of notoungulates which, during their evolution, independently developed several anatomical characteristics similar to those of

s, probably occupying numerous ecological niches only occupied by rodents on the other continents. ''Pseudotypotherium'' was a member of the family Mesotheriidae, which included some of the most specialized typotheres.

Bibliography

*F. Ameghino. 1904. Nuevas especies de mamíferos, cretáceos y terciarios de la República Argentina ew species of mammals, Cretaceous and Tertiarty, from the Argentine Republic Anales de la Sociedad Cientifica Argentina 56–58:1-142 *B. Patterson. 1934. The auditory region of an upper Pliocene typotherid. Field Museum of Natural History, Geological Series 6: 83–89. *A. Mones. 1980. Sobre una colección de vertebrados fósiles de Monte Hermoso (Plioceno Superior), Argentina, con la descripción de una nueva especie de Marmosa (Marsupialia: Didelphidae). ''Comunicaciones Paleontologicas del Museo de Historia Natural de Montevideo'' 1(8):159-169 *L. G. Marshall and T. Sempere. 1991. The Eocene to Pleistocene vertebrates of Bolivia and their stratigraphic context: a review. Fósiles y Facies de Bolivia - Vol. 1 Vertebrados (Revista Ténica de YPFB) 12(3-4):631-652 *Billet, G. , De Muizon, C. and Mamani Quispe, B. (2008), Late Oligocene mesotheriids (Mammalia, Notoungulata) from Salla and Lacayani (Bolivia): implications for basal mesotheriid phylogeny and distribution. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 152: 153-200. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2007.00388.x *D. H. Verzi and C. I. Montalvo. 2008. The oldest South American Cricetidae (Rodentia) and Mustelidae (Carnivora): Late Miocene faunal turnover in Central Argentina and the Great American Biotic Interchange. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 267(3-4):284-291 {{Taxonbar, from=Q60977845 Typotheres Prehistoric placental genera Pleistocene mammals of South America Neogene Argentina Fossils of Argentina Neogene Bolivia Fossils of Bolivia Taxa named by Florentino Ameghino Fossil taxa described in 1904