''Psittacotherium'' (meaning "parrot beast") is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

taeniodont Taeniodonta ("banded teeth") is an extinct early group of Cimolesta, cimolestid mammals known from the Maastrichtian to the Eocene. Taeniodonts evolution, evolved quickly into highly specialized digging animals, and varied greatly in size, from r ...

from the

Paleocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), E ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. With a weight of about and a length over , it had similar size of a large

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

References

*''Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids'' by Jordi Agusti and Mauricio Anton *''The Beginning of the Age of Mammals'' by Kenneth D. Rose *''Classification of Mammals'' by Malcolm C. McKenna and Susan K. Bell *''Evolution of Herbivory in Terrestrial Vertebrates: Perspectives from the Fossil Record'' by Hans-Dieter Sues

External links

''Psittacotherium''
in the

Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals, plants, and microorganisms. History The Paleobiology Database (PBDB) originated in the NCEAS-funded Phanerozoic Marine Pale ...

Cimolestans Paleocene mammals Paleocene genus extinctions Paleocene mammals of North America Fossil taxa described in 1882 Prehistoric mammal genera {{paleo-mammal-stub