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Persistence of a Mesozoic, non-therian mammalian lineage (Gondwanatheria) in the mid-Paleogene of Patagonia

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Abstract

We describe two isolated molariforms recovered from early–middle Eocene (early Lutetian) levels of northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. Comparisons with major lineages of therian and non-therian mammals lead us to refer them to a new genus and species of Gondwanatheria (Allotheria). There is a single root supporting each tooth that is very short, wide, rounded, and covered by cementum; the steep sidewalls, lack of a neck between the crown and root, and the heavily worn stage in both molariforms suggest that they were of a protohypsodont type. Both teeth are strongly worn at their centers, all along their length, with the labial edge less worn than the lingual; they show strong transverse crests that alternate with lingual grooves. The protohypsodont aspect of the teeth, as well as the strong, transverse crests, are suggestive of sudamericid affinities; on the other hand, the thin enamel layer and the occlusal pattern formed by the crests and grooves shows more similarities to molariform teeth of the Ferugliotheriidae. The new taxon adds evidence regarding the (1) extensive radiation of the Gondwanatheria throughout the Southern Hemisphere, (2) persistence of several lineages well after the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary, and (3) early evolution of hypsodont types among South American herbivorous mammals.

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Abbreviations

AH:

Andesitas Huancache Formation

EDJ:

enamel-dentine junction

IBC:

Ignimbrita Barda Colorada Formation

IPM:

interprismatic matrix

LIEB-PV:

Vertebrate Paleontology Collection, Laboratorio de Investigaciones en Evolución y Biodiversidad, Esquel

m:

meters

Ma:

Megannum

MACN PV RN:

Sección Paleontología Vertebrados, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”, Buenos Aires, Vertebrate Paleontology, Río Negro Collection

MF:

upper molariform

MLP:

División Paleontología Vertebrados, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo de La Plata (UNLP), La Plata

mm:

millimeters

OES:

outer enamel surface

PLEX:

prismless outer enamel

SALMA:

South American Land-Mammal Age

SANU:

South American native ungulates

TLH:

Tufolitas Laguna del Hunco Formation

UNPSJB:

Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia “San Juan Bosco”, sede Esquel

µm:

microns (micrometers)

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Acknowledgments

We thank Gabriel M. Martin, Leonardo Avilla, Ariel Humai, Constanza Koefoed, María Luisa Pemberton, and Érika Abrantes for their assistance in the fieldwork at La Barda and in the laboratory; Marcela Tomeo for the figures that illustrate this work; Carolina Vieytes and Rafael Urréjola for the scanning electron micrographs; discussions with Carolina were also very helpful while considering the enamel microstructure of Greniodon. To Alejandro Kramarz for facilitating the MACN (Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”, Buenos Aires) gondwanatherian collections for their study; Juan J. Molly for making casts of the new specimens. Editors of Naturwissenschaften, Dr. David Krause, and two anonymous reviewers provided numerous, useful comments to the original manuscript. FJG, MFT, and LC thank CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina, PIP 5621 and PIP 0361) for its financial support in the lab and in the field. FJG thanks the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Goin, F.J., Tejedor, M.F., Chornogubsky, L. et al. Persistence of a Mesozoic, non-therian mammalian lineage (Gondwanatheria) in the mid-Paleogene of Patagonia. Naturwissenschaften 99, 449–463 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-012-0919-z

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