Gondwanatheria
| Gondwanatheria Temporal range: Campanian-Miocene, 70.6–17.5 Ma |
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| Mandible of Sudamerica | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | †Allotheria |
| Suborder: |
†Gondwanatheria Mones, 1987 |
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Gondwanatheria is an extinct group of mammals that lived during the Upper Cretaceous through the Miocene in the Southern Hemisphere, including Antarctica. They are known only from isolated teeth, a few lower jaws, two partial skulls and one complete cranium. Because of this fragmentary knowledge their placement is not clear.
For several decades the affinities of the group were not clear, being first interpreted as early xenarthrans, or "toothless" mammals similar to the modern anteater. A variety of studies have since confirmed their position as allotheres related to multituberculates, possibly even true multituberculates, closer to cimolodonts than "plagiaulacidans" are.
There are three known families within Gondwanatheria. The family Sudamericidae was named by Scillato-Yané and Pascual in 1984, and includes the vast majority of named taxa. The family Ferugliotheriidae was named by José Bonaparte in 1986, and includes one genus, Ferugliotherium, and possibly a few other forms like Trapalcotherium. Groeberiidae, originally interpreted as paucituberculate marsupials, has since been understood as gondwanatherians, though only the type genus, Groeberia, has been examined as such.
Further fossils have come from India, Madagascar and Antarctica. A possible Ferugliotherium-like species occurs in Maastrichtian deposits of Mexico, extending the clade to North America.
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Wikipedia