Litopterna

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Litopterna
Macrauchenia

Macrauchenia

Temporal occurrence
Paleocene to Pleistocene
65 to 0.01 million years
Locations
Systematics
Mammals (mammalia)
Higher mammals (Eutheria)
Laurasiatheria
Scrotifera
South American ungulates (Meridiungulata)
Litopterna
Scientific name
Litopterna
Ameghino , 1889

The Litopterna ( Gr .: litós = simple, smooth; ptérna = heel) are an extinct group of mammals that lived in South America during the Cenozoic and the last of which did not become extinct until the end of the Pleistocene .

They are counted among the South American ungulates (Meridiungulata), a group of mammals whose representatives in geographically isolated South America achieved great diversity during the Cenozoic and underwent strong adaptive radiation .

features

The litopterna are generally characterized by an elongation of the limbs and a reduction in the number of toes, which led to the fact that some representatives externally strongly resembled camels or horses and probably occupied similar ecological niches . The teeth were relatively simple and, unlike other South American ungulates, did not show any great specialization. The litopterna presumably ate different plants.

Development history

The litopterna are first documented in the Paleocene , from the Eocene there are individual finds from the Antarctic continent, which at that time was still connected to South America and had a warmer climate than today. Most of the representatives died out with the formation of the Isthmus of Panama at the end of the Pliocene , as they were displaced by the superior camels , horses and deer that immigrated from North America. Or maybe they weren't up to the newly immigrated predators, which included dogs and cats . Only two genera of the Litopterna, namely Windhausenia and Macrauchenia, were found to be adaptable enough and survived until the end of the Pleistocene in South America.

Systematics

Thoatherium

The Litopterna can be divided into two superfamilies with a good dozen families. The Protolipternidae and the Notonychopidae , both of which were widespread in the Upper Paleocene , are important. The latter contains with Requisia from the Salamanca Formation in Patagonia , which dates to an age of 64.7 to 63.5 million years, one of the earliest records of the litopterna. The Proterotheriidae (Gr .: próteros = front; theríon = mammal) and the Macraucheniidae (Gr .: macros = long; auchenas = neck) were much better known and more diverse in shape . Both lines occurred from the Upper Paleocene to the Upper Pleistocene . The Proterotheriidae showed a particularly strong reduction in the number of toes and thus a similarity to the horses . Well-known representatives are Diadiaphorus , whose feet only touched the ground with one hoof and whose side toes were stunted, and Thoatherium , whose legs, just like those of today's horses, only ended in a single hoof. The Macraucheniidae, on the other hand, are often described as camel-like because of their long neck, elongated limbs and wide feet . In contrast to these, however, her feet ended in three toes. The most famous representative of this group is Macrauchenia , which may have had a short trunk and survived until the end of the Pleistocene.

The internal system according to McKenna & Bell:

  • Order Litopterna Ameghino , 1889

literature

  • Kemp, TS: The Origin and Evolution of Mammals . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005, ISBN 0198507615 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Carolina Saldhana Scherer, Vanessa Gregis Pitana and Ana Maria Ribeiro: Proterotheriidae and Macraucheniidae (Litopterna, Mammalia) from the Pleistocene of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. Revista Brasileira de Paleontologia 12 (3), 2009, pp. 231-246, doi: 10.4072 / rbp.2009.3.06
  2. ↑ William C. Clyde, Peter Wilf, Ari Iglesias, Rudy L. Slingerland, Timothy Barnum, Peter K. Bijl, Timothy J. Bralower, Henk Brinkhuis, Emily E. Comer, Brian T. Huber, Mauricio Ibañez-Mejia, Brian R Jicha, J. Marcelo Krause, Jonathan D. Schueth, Bradley S. Singer, María Sol Raigemborn, Mark D. Schmit, Appy Sluijs and María del Carmen Zamaloa: New age constraints for the Salamanca Formation and lower Río Chico Group in the western San Jorge Basin, Patagonia, Argentina: Implications for Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction recovery and land mammal age correlations. Geological Society of America Bulletin 126 (3/4), 2014, pp. 289-306
  3. ^ Richard M. Fariña, Sergio F. Vizcaíno and Gerardo de Iuliis: Megafauna. Giant beasts of Pleistocene South America. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 2013, pp. 1-436
  4. ↑ Malcolm C. McKenna and Susan K. Bell: Classification of mammals above the species level. Columbia University Press, New York, 1997, pp. 1-631 (pp. 451-454)
  5. ↑ M. Bond, MA Reguero, SF Vizcaíno and SA Marenssi: A new 'South American ungulate' (Mammalia: litopterna) from the Eocene of the Antarctic Peninsula. In: JE Francis, D. Pirrie and JA Crane (Eds.): Cretaceous – Tertiary High-Latitude Palaeoenvironments, James Ross Basin, Antarctica. Geological Society, London, Special Publications 258, 2006, pp. 163-176
  6. ↑ Andrew McGrath, Federico Anaya and Darin A. Croft: Two new macraucheniids (Mammalia: Litopterna) from the late middle Miocene (Laventan South American Land Mammal Age) of Quebrada Honda, Bolivia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2018, doi: 10.1080 / 02724634.2018.1461632
  7. ^ JF Bonaparte and J. Morales: Un primitivo Notonychopidae (Litopterna) del Palaeoceno Inferior de Punta Peligro, Chubut, Argentina. Estudios Geológicos 53, 1997, pp. 263-274
  8. ↑ a b c Miguel Fernando Soria: Los Proterotheriidae (Litopterna, Mammalia), sistemática, origen y filogenia. Monografías del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales1, 2001, pp. 1–167
  9. ↑ Andrea Corona, Ana Clara Badín, Daniel Perea, Martín Ubilla and Gabriela Inés Schmidt: A new genus and species and additional reports of the native South American ungulates Proterotheriidae (Mammalia, Litopterna) in the Late Miocene of Uruguay. Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 2020, p. 102646, doi: 10.1016 / j.jsames.2020.102646
  10. ^ Richard L. Cifelli and Carlos Villarroel: Paleobiology and affinities of Megadolodus. In: Richard F. Kay, Richard H. Madden, Richard L. Cifelli, and John J. Flynn (Eds.): Vertebrate Paleontology in the Neotropics. The Miocene Fauna of La Venta, Colombia. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, 1997, pp. 265-288
  11. ^ Alfredo A. Carlini, Javier N. Gelfo and Rodolfo Sánchez: A new Megadolodinae (Mammalia, Litopterna, Protherotheriidae) from the Urumaco Formation (Late Miocene) of Venezuela. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 4 (3), 2006, pp. 279-284
  12. ^ Andrew J. McGrath, Federico Anaya and Darin A. Croft: New proterotheriids from the middle Miocene of Quebrada Honda, Bolivia, and body size and diversity trends in proterotheriid and macraucheniid litopterns (Mammalia). Ameghiniana, 2020, doi: 10.5710 / AMGH.03.03.2020.3268
  13. ↑ Alejandro G. Kramarz and Mariano Bond: Los Litopterna (Mammalia) de la Formación Pinturas, Mioceno Temprano-Medio de Patagonia. Ameghiniana 42 (3), 2005, pp. 611-625
  14. ^ Richard L. Cifelli and Javier Guerrero: Litopterns. In: Richard F. Kay, Richard H. Madden, Richard L. Cifelli, and John J. Flynn (Eds.): Vertebrate Paleontology in the Neotropics. The Miocene Fauna of La Venta, Colombia. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, 1997, pp. 289-302
  15. ↑ Andrea Corona, Daniel Perea and Martín Ubilla: A new genus of Proterotheriinae (Mammalia, Litopterna) from the Pleistocene of Uruguay. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2019, doi: 10.1080 / 02724634.2019.1567523

Web links

Commons : Litopterna  - collection of images, videos and audio files