Sudamericidae is a family of

gondwanathere Gondwanatheria is an extinct group of mammaliaforms that lived in parts of Gondwana, including Madagascar, India, South America, Africa and Antarctica during the Upper Cretaceous through the Paleogene (and possibly much earlier, if '' Allostaffi ...

mammals that lived during the

late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first 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 means "less recen ...

. Its members include ''

Lavanify ''Lavanify'' is a mammalian genus from the late Cretaceous (probably Maastrichtian, about 71 to 66 million years ago) of Madagascar. The only species, ''L. miolaka'', is known from two isolated teeth, one of which is damaged. The teeth were ...

'' and ''

Vintana ''Vintana sertichi'' (from Malagasy vintana, "luck" ) is an early groundhog-like mammal dating from the Late Cretaceous, approximately 66 million years ago. Scientists found the lone fossil, a skull, on Madagascar's west coast in the Maastrichti ...

'' from the Cretaceous of Madagascar, ''

Bharattherium ''Bharattherium'' is a mammal that lived in India during the Maastrichtian (latest Cretaceous) and possibly the Paleocene. The genus has a single species, ''Bharattherium bonapartei''. It is part of the gondwanathere family Sudamericidae, which i ...

'' (=''Dakshina'') from the Cretaceous of India, '' Gondwanatherium'' from the Cretaceous of Argentina, ''

Sudamerica ''Sudamerica'', literally "South America" in Spanish, is a genus of mammal from the extinct suborder Gondwanatheria that lived in Patagonia, Argentina (Salamanca Formation) and Antarctica (La Meseta Formation) from the Middle Paleocene (Peligr ...

'' from the Paleocene of Argentina, and unnamed forms from the Eocene of Antarctica (closely related to ''Sudamerica'') and Cretaceous of Tanzania.Gurovich and Beck, 2009; Krause et al., 1997; Prasad, 2008; Prasad et al., 2007; Wilson et al., 2007 More recently, ''

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and gl ...

'', a mammal from the

Colhuehuapian The Colhuehuapian age is a period of geologic time (21.0–17.5 Ma) within the Early Miocene epoch of the Neogene, used more specifically within the SALMA classification in South America. It follows the Deseadan and precedes the Santacrucian ag ...

stage of the

of southern South America, has been suggested to be a sudamericid. ''

'' is one of the most complete gondwanathere remains, and offers an insight to the anatomy and habits of sudamericids as a whole. It possesses massive lateral flanges in its skull, and bears massive olfactory bulbs. At , it is one of the largest Mesozoic mammals known.

References

Literature cited

* Gurovich, Y. and Beck, R. 2009
The phylogenetic affinities of the enigmatic mammalian clade Gondwanatheria
(subscription required). Journal of Mammalian Evolution 16:25–49. * Krause, D.W., Prasad, G.V.R., von Koenigswald, W., Sahni, A. and Grine, F.E. 1997
Cosmopolitanism among gondwanan Late Cretaceous mammals
(subscription required). Nature 390:504–507. *Prasad, G.V.R. 2008
Sedimentary basins & fossil records
Pp. 90–96 in Singhvi, A.K. and Bhattacharya, A. (eds.). Glimpses of Geoscience Research in India: The Indian Report to IUGS 2004–2008. New Delhi: The Indian National Science Academy (INSA). *Prasad, G.V.R., Verma, O., Sahni, A., Krause, D.W., Khosla, A. and Parmar, V. 2007. A new late Cretaceous gondwanatherian mammal from central India. Proceedings of the Indian National Science Academy 73(1):17–24. * Wilson, G.P., Das Sarma, D.C. and Anantharaman, S. 2007
Late Cretaceous sudamericid gondwanatherians from India with paleobiogeographic considerations of Gondwanan mammals
(subscription required). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27(2):521–531. {{Taxonbar, from=Q3774822 Gondwanatheres Prehistoric mammal families Late Cretaceous first appearances Miocene extinctions Taxa named by Gustavo Juan Scillato-Yané Taxa named by Rosendo Pascual