''Xenastrapotherium'' is an extinct

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 ...

astrapothere Astrapotheria is an extinct order of South American and Antarctic hoofed mammals that existed from the late Paleocene to the Middle Miocene, ."The uruguaytheriine Astrapotheriidae from the rich middle Miocene Honda Group of the upper Magdale ...

, a type of hoofed

herbivorous A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...

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 ...

, native to

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 ...

, which lived in the Middle to Late Miocene period, typically during the

Laventan The Laventan ( es, Laventense) age is a period of geologic time (13.8 to 11.8 Ma) within the Middle Miocene epoch of the Neogene, used more specifically within the SALMA classification in South America. It follows the Colloncuran and precedes ...

stage. It is a member of the family

Astrapotheriidae Astrapotheriidae is an extinct family of herbivorous South American land mammals that lived from the Late Eocene (Mustersan SALMA) to the Middle Miocene (Laventan SALMA) . The most derived of the astrapotherians, they were also the largest and mo ...

in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Uruguaytheriinae, large astrapotheres, equipped with a trunk-like nose and protruding teeth, similar to the elephants, but their tusks were the canine teeth, not the incisors. ''Xenastrapotherium'' (named after the

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 ...

word ''xenos'' "strange" add to the genus ''

Astrapotherium ''Astrapotherium'' ("lightning beast") is an extinct genus of South American mammals that vaguely resembled a small elephant or large tapir. However, it was unrelated to elephants or tapirs, but was instead related to other extinct South American ...

'', "lightning beast") was a genus widely distributed in northern South America, in contrast to other species of astrapotheres which lived in the area of the Southern Cone of the continent. It differed from other astrapotheres by having two lower

incisor Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, whe ...

s on each side of the jaw and the

tusk Tusks are elongated, continuously growing front teeth that protrude well beyond the mouth of certain mammal species. They are most commonly canine teeth, as with pigs and walruses, or, in the case of elephants, elongated incisors. Tusks share c ...

s have a pronounced longitudinal curvature, although their general shape and size are probably very similar to ''Astrapotherium'', whose weight would be 900 to 1,500

kilogram The kilogram (also kilogramme) is the unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), having the unit symbol kg. It is a widely used measure in science, engineering and commerce worldwide, and is often simply called a kilo colloquially ...

s, comparable to the current

black rhinoceros The black rhinoceros, black rhino or hook-lipped rhinoceros (''Diceros bicornis'') is a species of rhinoceros, native to eastern and southern Africa including Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania ...

.Johnson, S. C. & Madden, R. H. 1997. Uruguaytheriine astrapotheres of tropical South America. In Kay, R. F., Madden, R. H., Cifelli, R. L. & Flynn, J. J. (eds) ''Vertebrate Paleontology in the Neotropics: The Miocene fauna of La Venta, Colombia''. Smithsonian Institution Press (Washington, D.C.), pp. 355-381.

Species

Several species of ''Xenastrapotherium'' have been described, although none is known from complete remains; they are distinguished by features of their teeth and jaws, and their geographical and temporal distribution. The species currently recognized are: * ''X. christi'' : the first known species, originally classified by Stehlin (1929) as ''Astrapotherium christi'', and later reclassified to the current genus. It was found in

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

near

Zaraza Zaraza (from Ukraine, Polish, Serbian "plague") is a Canadian experimental/industrial funeral doom band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Biography Formed in early 1993, Zaraza was born out of a meeting between newly arrived Polish immigrant Jace ...

in the state of Guarico, based on a full lower jaw. * ''X. kraglievichi'' : based on several teeth and some jaws, discovered in the area of

La Venta La Venta is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Olmec civilization located in the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco. Some of the artifacts have been moved to the museum "Parque - Museo de La Venta", which is in nearby Villahermosa, ...

(Group Honda, Villavieja Formation) in the department of Huila,

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, dating from the middle Miocene, about 13 to 11 million years. Distinguished by their lower tusks, which were more horizontal and rounded in cross-section. This species was contemporary with its great relative, ''

Granastrapotherium ''Granastrapotherium'' is an extinct genus of ungulate mammals, described from remains found in rocks of the Honda Group in the Tatacoa Desert, in the Colombian departments of Huila and Tolima, at the Miocene fossil site La Venta. The only spec ...

''. * ''X. aequatorialis'' : Based on a piece of right lower jaw, found in the river Burgaya in the province of Cañar,

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

, in the

Biblián Formation The Biblián Formation is an Early Miocene (Colhuehuapian in the SALMA classification) geologic formation of the Cuenca Basin in Ecuador. Fossils of '' Xenastrapotherium aequatorialis'' have been found in the formation.molar with buccal and labial cingulum, and the first molar was lophodont and had roots. This species is older than the fossils of La Venta, contemporary with Astrapotheriinae like ''Astrapotherium'', ''

Astrapothericulus ''Astrapothericulus'' is an extinct genus of mammals, belonging to the order Astrapotheria. It lived during the Lower Miocene in what is now South America. Description This animal was as large than a tapir, and may have looked like them, as it h ...

'' and ''

Parastrapotherium ''Parastrapotherium'' is an extinct genus of South American land mammal that existed from the Late Oligocene (Deseadan SALMA) to the Early Miocene (Colhuehuapian SALMA). The genus includes some of the largest and smallest known astrapotherian, bu ...

''. * ''X. chaparralensis'' : Another species known from Colombia, was found near to

Chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

in department of Tolima, in the Tuné Formation (early Miocene). It is distinguished by its greater molar area, a high molar buccal cingulum, with canines very similar to those of ''X. kraglievichi''. * ''X. amazonense'' : Based on jaw fragments found in the vicinity of the river Breu,

Pedra Pintada Caverna da Pedra Pintada (Painted Rock Cave ), is an archaeological site in northern Brazil, with evidence of human presence dating ca. 11,200 years ago.Saraceni, Jessica E. and Adriana Franco da Sá"People of South America."''Archaeology.'' Vol. ...

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 ...

, also found in the Fitzcarrald Arch in

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

. It is distinguished by the large size of the third molar, compared to other species of ''Xenastrapotherium''. It was classified originally in its own genus, ''Synastrapotherium''. A tusk assigned to this species was found in the zone of

Acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

in Brazil, in deposits from the late Miocene, which make it the most recent record for the astrapotheres; but this idea has been challenged, since the fossil could not be from an astrapothere.

Phylogeny

Cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ...

based in the

phylogenetic analysis In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

published by Vallejo Pareja ''et al''., 2015, showing the position of ''Xenastrapotherium'':

Distribution

Fossils of ''Xenastrapotherium'' have been found in:''Xenastrapotherium''
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals ...

.org *

Honda Group is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

Biblián Formation The Biblián Formation is an Early Miocene (Colhuehuapian in the SALMA classification) geologic formation of the Cuenca Basin in Ecuador. Fossils of '' Xenastrapotherium aequatorialis'' have been found in the formation.Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

* Ipururo Formation,

Solimões Formation The Pebas Formation is a lithostratigraphic unit of Miocene age, found in western Amazonia. The formation extends over , including parts of Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.Wesselingh et al., 2006 It is interpreted as representing the deposits ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

References

External links

Website of the Berkeley University about the fauna of La Venta

"Snorki the giant's friends and relatives" in Tetrapod Zoology

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5851350 Meridiungulata Burdigalian first appearances Langhian extinctions Miocene mammals of South America Huayquerian Chasicoan Mayoan Laventan Colloncuran Friasian Neogene Bolivia Fossils of Bolivia Neogene Brazil Fossils of Brazil Neogene Colombia Fossils of Colombia Honda Group, Colombia Neogene Ecuador Fossils of Ecuador Neogene Peru Fossils of Peru Neogene Venezuela Fossils of Venezuela Fossil taxa described in 1929 Prehistoric placental genera