''Teushentherium'' is an extinct genus of notohippid

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 ...

from the Oligocene of

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 ...

. Fossils have been found in the Sarmiento Formation of Argentina.

Etymology

The genus name, ''Teushentherium'', is derived from ''

Teushen The Teushen or Tehues were an indigenous hunter-gatherer people of Patagonia in Argentina. They were considered "foot nomads", whose culture relied on hunting and gathering.Adelaar and Muysken 550 Their territory was between the Tehuelche people ...

'', one of the

Chonan languages The Chonan languages are a family of indigenous American languages which were spoken in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia. Two Chon languages are well attested: Selk'nam (or Ona), spoken by the people of the same name who occupied territory in th ...

of the Tehuelche, and ''therion'', which is

greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

for "beast". The specific name refers to Camarones, a typical coastal town of

Chubut Province Chubut ( es, Provincia del Chubut, ; cy, Talaith Chubut) is a province in southern Argentina, situated between the 42nd parallel south (the border with Río Negro Province), the 46th parallel south (bordering Santa Cruz Province), the Andes rang ...

near the Barrancas Blancas locality.

Description

This animal, only known from fragmentary remains, was approximately the size of a goat. Its skull was rather massive and had a short muzzle. The dentition was complete and continuous (without diastema), and the premolars and molars were high-crowned (hypsodont), like in its relative ''

Rhynchippus ''Rhynchippus'' ("Snout Horse") is an extinct genus of notoungulate mammals from the Late Oligocene ( Deseadan in the SALMA classification) of South America. The genus was first described by Florentino Ameghino in 1897 and the type species is ' ...

''. The premolars had a well developed cingulum, while the molars were elongated. The shape of the premolars and molars was reminiscent to those of

equids Equidae (sometimes known as the horse family) is the taxonomic family of horses and related animals, including the extant horses, asses, and zebras, and many other species known only from fossils. All extant species are in the genus '' Equus'', ...

. ''Teushentherium'', like its relatives, may have had a robust body with slender limbs.

Taxonomy

''Teushentherium'' was first described in 2021, based on fossilized remains found in the Sarmiento Formation in Argentina, in deposits dating to the Middle to Late Oligocene. ''Teushentherium'' was placed within the family

Notohippidae Notohippidae is a paraphyly, paraphyletic extinct Family (biology), family of Notoungulata, notoungulate mammals from South America. Notohippids are known from the Eocene and Oligocene Epoch (reference date), epochs.McKenna, Malcolm C., and Bell ...

, a family of toxodont notoungulates with horse-like teeth, with very high-crowned molars. More recent research, however, suggests that this group is paraphyletic, containing increasingly derived forms, some of them close to the ancestors of "true"

Toxodontidae Toxodontidae is an extinct family of notoungulate mammals, known from the Oligocene to the Holocene (11,000 BP) of South America, with one genus, ''Mixotoxodon'', also known from the Pleistocene of Central America and southwestern North America ...

. In 2021, it was found to be the sister taxon to '' Mendozahippus''. The following position of the

Toxodontia Toxodontia. Retrieved April 2013. is a suborder of the Meridiungulata, meridiungulate order Notoungulata. Most of the members of the five included families, including the largest notoungulates, share several dental, auditory and tarsal specializ ...

is based on Martínez ''et al.'' 2021, showing the position of ''Teushentherium''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q114674702 Toxodonts Prehistoric placental genera Oligocene mammals of South America Paleogene Argentina Fossils of Argentina Tinguirirican Deseadan Fossil taxa described in 2021 Golfo San Jorge Basin Sarmiento Formation