''Taubatherium'' 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 ...

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

, belonging to the 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 11,000 years ago. Notoungulates were morphologically diverse, with forms resemb ...

. It lived during the Late

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

, in what is today

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, in

South 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 southe ...

Description

Fossils of this animal indicates that it had a fairly robust build, but not as heavy as some of its relatives, '' Leontinia'' and ''

Scarrittia ''Scarrittia'' is an extinct genus of hoofed mammal of the family Leontiniidae, native to South America during the Oligocene, Late Oligocene epoch (Deseadan in the South American land mammal age, SALMA classification). Description ''Scarritt ...

''. The robust body was supported by four relatively slender but strong limbs ; the dimensions of ''Taubatherium'' were typical of its family, as it was approximately 1.80 meters long and 80 centimeters high at the withers. It weighed between 280 and 350 kilograms, and its body mass would be equivalent to that of a modern

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...

Classification

''Taubatherium'' was first described in 1983 by

Carlos de Paula Couto Carlos de Paula Couto, (Porto Alegre, August 30, 1910 – November 15, 1982) was a Brazilian paleontologist. Biography Paula Couto was a researcher at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, specialized in paleontology of mammals. ...

, based on cranial and postcranial fragmentary remains found in the

Tremembé Formation Tremembé is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Vale do Paraíba e Litoral Norte. The population is 47,714 (2020 est.) in an area of 191.09 km². The elevation is 560 m. A shr ...

, near

Taubaté Taubaté is a medium-sized city in the State of São Paulo, in southeastern Brazil. Location Its strategic location between the two most important Brazilian cities (São Paulo away, and Rio de Janeiro away), connected to both by the Presiden ...

, in

. Paula Couto believed that the fossils belonged to the already existing genus ''Leontinia'', and described the remains as ''Leontinia'' cf. ''gaudryi''. In 1989, these remains were attributed to a new genus of notoungulates, ''Taubatherium''. In addition to the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

, ''Taubatherium paulacoutoi'', another species, ''T. major'' was described from the same formation and based on a single upper molar. This latter species is currently considered a synonym to the type species. ''Taubatherium'' was a member of the family

Leontiniidae Leontiniidae is an extinct family comprising eighteen genera of notoungulate mammals known from the Middle Eocene (Mustersan) to Late Miocene (Huayquerian) of South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphe ...

, a group of heavy-built notoungulates that thrived during the Oligocene. ''Taubatherium'' seems to have been part of a tropical clade, also including ''

Huilatherium ''Huilatherium'' is an extinct genus of leontiniid, a group of hoofed mammals belonging to the order Notoungulata, that comprises other South American ungulate families that evolved in parallel with some mammals of the Northern hemisphere. The l ...

'' and ''

Colpodon ''Colpodon'' is an extinct genus of herbivorous mammal, belonging to the order Notoungulata. It lived during the Early Miocene, in what is today Argentina and Chile, in South America. Description This animal is almost exclusively known from cra ...

''.

Paleobiology and Paleoecology

''Taubatherium'' was an herbivorous animal, with gregarious habits, who lived in herd near the ancient lake whose former basin constitutes the Tremembé Formation ; specimens with notable morphological differences, probably due to ontogenesis or sexual dimorphism, were preserved in the fossil records.G. do Couto Ribeiro. 2016. Osteology of Taubatherium paulacoutoi Soria & Alvarenga, 1989 (Notoungulata, Leontiniidae) and a new Pyrotheria: two fossils mammals from Tremembé Formation, Brazil (SALMA Deseadense - Upper Oligocene. Instituto de Biociencias, Unpublished Thesis.

Bibliography

*M. F. Soria and H. M. F. Alvarenga. 1989. Nuevos restos de mamiferos de la Cuenca de Taubaté, Estado de Sao Paulo, Brasil. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 61(2):157-175 *B. J. Shockey. 2005. New leontinidids (Class Mammalia, Order Notoungulata, Family Leontiniidae) from the Salla beds of Bolivia (Deseadan, Late Oligocene). Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History 45(4):249-260 Toxodonts Oligocene mammals of South America Paleogene Brazil Fossils of Brazil Fossil taxa described in 1989 Prehistoric placental genera {{paleo-mammal-stub