Patagonia (mammal)
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Patagonia Temporal range: Miocene 21–17.5 Ma |
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| Patagonia emerging from a hole near Necrolestes (burrowing), another South American non-therian Miocene mammal. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Suborder: | †Gondwanatheria |
| Family: | †Sudamericidae |
| Genus: | †Patagonia |
| Species: | †P. peregrina |
| Binomial name | |
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†Patagonia peregrina Pascual & Carlini 1987 |
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Patagonia is an extinct genus of non-placental mammal from the Miocene of Argentina. Traditionally considered a metatherian incertae sedis, more recent analysis have shown it to be a gondwanathere. It is the youngest allothere species known.
Currently, a single species is known, P. peregrina, hailing from the Colhuehuapian-dating deposits of the Sarmiento Formation, Chubut Province. The holotype, MACN-CH-869, is composed of a semi-complete mandible; isolated upper and lower teeth are also known. The jaw is short and deep, bearing an unfused subvertical dentary symphysis and dorsally positioned masseteric fossa. The incisors are rootless and extend lingually along the ventral border of the dentary up to the level of molariform 3, and the molariforms are hypsodont. The dental formula is:
and the molariform elements are identical, so distinction between molars and premolars is impossible. Previously, the animal was thought to have canines, but several studies have found them to be a second pair of incisors.
Originally, Patagonia was identified as some sort of marsupial mammal. However, due to its highly aberrant attributes, it tended to be singled out in its own order and family, Patagonioidea and Patagoniidae. Some phylogenetic studies recovered it as part of Paucituberculata, often lined with the equally confounding groeberiids, albeit in a purely provisory manner with no listed synapomorphies, based only on its rodent-like aspects.
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