Ptolemaiida is a taxon of wolf-sized afrothere mammals that lived in northern and eastern Africa during the

Paleogene The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...

. The oldest fossils are from the latest Eocene strata of the

Jebel Qatrani Formation The Jebel Qatrani Formation (also Gebel Qatrani) is a palaeontological and geologic formation located in the Faiyum Governorate of central Egypt. Conformably overlying the Qasr el Sagha Formation. It is exposed namely between the Jebel Qat ...

, near the Fayum oasis in Egypt. A tooth is known from an Oligocene-aged stratum in Angola, and Miocene specimens (of ''

Kelba Kelba (german: Kelp) is a village in Rapla Parish, Rapla County in northwestern Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland ac ...

'') are known from Kenya and Uganda The origin of the Ptolemaiida is obscure, and debated. The type species was originally thought to be a primate, but, later, when elongated skulls with long canines of ''Ptolemaia'' and ''

Qarunavus ''Qarunavus'' is an extinct genus of mammals in the order Ptolemaiida. A single species, ''Qarunavus meyeri'' is known from the Lower Oligocene Jebel Qatrani Formation of modern-day Egypt. Described by Elwyn Simons & Philip Gingerich in 1974, ...

'' were found, they were then thought to be hyaenodontids, or giant, carnivorous relatives of the pantolestids ''

Palaeosinopa ''Palaeosinopa'' is an extinct genus of semi-aquatic, non-placental eutherian mammals belonging to the family Pantolestidae Pantolestidae is an extinct family of semi-aquatic, non-placental eutherian mammals. Forming the core of the equally ...

'', and of modern shrews The family Ptolemaiidae was elevated to order level in 1995, although some experts later placed the Ptolemaiidae within the pantolestids. Recently, Ptolemaiida has been placed within Afrotheria on the basis of paleobiology, as the taxon was endemic to Africa, and because of some similarities in the anatomical features of the skull in common with aardvarks. It is currently unclear if they form a sister taxon to Tubulidentata or are a

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

sequence leading to them. Regardless, their close relation may offer the possibility for true dental synapomorphies in Afroinsectiphilia. As mentioned earlier, there has been much confusion about the origins and even identities of the ptolemaiidans. The first specimen, a set of isolated molar teeth, of the type species, '' Ptolemaia lyonsi'', was originally identified as being a primate, as they were flat and nearly identical to those of primates. Later, when the first skull was found, it was then thought to be a monstrous, wolf-sized shrew, as the skull had long canine fangs, and was very gracile. However, recently, there has been a reconsideration of the ptolemaiidan diet, and possible behavior, as wear on the teeth suggest that it crushed hard or abrasive food, and that the teeth had little or no shearing ability. Even so, some sources still refer to them as being gigantic, carnivorous shrews.

References

Prehistoric animal orders Mammal orders Eocene mammals Oligocene mammals Miocene mammals of Africa Miocene extinctions Fossil taxa described in 1995 {{Paleo-afrotheria-stub