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Proadiantus

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Extinct genus of litopterns
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Proadiantus
Temporal range: Late Oligocene
~28–24 Ma PreꞒ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Litopterna
Family: Adianthidae
Subfamily: Adianthinae
Genus: Proadiantus
Ameghino 1897
Type species
Proadiantus excavatus
Ameghino, 1897
Species
  • P. excavatus Ameghino 1897
Synonyms
  • Proadiantus pungidens Ameghino 1901

Proadiantus (Ameghino, 1897) is an extinct genus of adianthid litoptern. It lived during the Late Oligocene, in what is today South America. It consists of only 1 species, Proadiantus excavatus.

Description

This animal is mainly known from fossil remains of its teeth, maxilla and mandible, and its appearance is therefore difficult to restore. It is assumed, from comparison with its better known relatives Adianthus and Adiantoides, that it was a small and slender litoptern.

Proadiantus differs from Adiantoides by its significantly larger size, and it may have been as large as a coyote. The molars had rather low upper crowns ; the upper molars had a mesostyle, but no clearly defined metastyle ; the hypoconus was elongated. The talonid of the second lower molar had a complex structure.

Classification

Proadiantus was one of the Adianthidae, a family of small sized litopterns with a characteristic dentition. Proadiantus seems to have been one of the most basal members of the group, at the basis of the subfamily Adianthinae. It was closely related to Thadanius and Tricoelodus.

Proadiantus excavatus was first described in 1897 by Florentino Ameghino, based on fossilized remains from the Cabeza Blanca locality of the Sarmiento Formation, in the Chubut Province of Argentine Patagonia. The species Proadiantus pungidens, described several years later by Ameghino himself based on fossils from the same geological horizon, is now considered identical to the type species.

Bibliography

  • F. Ameghino. 1897. Mammiféres crétacés de l’Argentine (Deuxième contribution à la connaissance de la fauna mammalogique de couches à Pyrotherium) . Boletin Instituto Geografico Argentino 18(4–9):406-521
  • F. Ameghino. 1901. Notices préliminaires sur des ongulés nouveaux des terrains crétacés de Patagonie . Boletin de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Córdoba 16:349-429
  • G. G. Simpson and J. L. Minoprio. 1949. A new adianthine litoptern and associated mammals from a Deseadan faunule in Mendoza, Argentina. American Museum Novitates 1434:1-27
  • R. L. Cifelli and M. F. Soria. 1983. Systematics of the Adianthidae (Litopterna, Mammalia). American Museum Novitates 2771:1-25

References

Genera of South American native ungulates
Xenungulata, Pyrotheria, Astrapotheria, and other minor groups
Kollpaniidae?
Didolodontidae
Protolipternidae
Xenungulata
Carodniidae
Pyrotheria
Colombitheriidae
Pyrotheriidae
Astrapotheria
Trigonostylopidae
Astrapotheriidae
Albertogaudryinae
Astrapotheriinae
Uruguaytheriinae
Carodnia vieirai

Pyrotherium romeroi

Astrapotherium magnum
Litopterna
Eulitopterna
Adianthidae
Macraucheniidae
Cramaucheniinae
Macraucheniinae
Proterotherioidea
Anisolambdidae
Anisolambdinae
Sparnotheriodontinae
Proterotheriidae
Megadolodinae
Proterotheriinae
Notopterna
Amilnedwardsiidae
Indaleciidae
Notonychopidae
Incertae sedis
Theosodon garretorum Xenorhinotherium bahiense
Notoungulata
incertae sedis
Notioprogonia
Henricosborniidae
Notostylopidae
Toxodontia
Homalodotheriidae
Isotemnidae
Eutoxodontia
Leontiniidae
Notohippidae
Toxodontidae
Nesodontinae
Toxodontinae
Typotheria
Archaeopithecidae
Oldfieldthomasiidae
Interatheriidae
Interatheriinae
Notopithecinae
Mesotheriidae
Mesotheriinae
Archaeohyracidae
Hegetotheriidae
Hegetotheriinae
Pachyrukhinae
Pachyrukhini
Thomashuxleya rostrata

Huilatherium pluriplicatum

Toxodon platensis
Taxon identifiers
Proadiantus
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