Monotrematum sudamericanum
| Monotrematum sudamericanum | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Paleocene | ||||||||||||
| 61 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Monotrematum sudamericanum | ||||||||||||
| Pascual , Archer , Ortiz Jaureguizar , Prado , Godthelp & Hand , 1992 | ||||||||||||
Monotrematum sudamericanum is an extinct species of mammal . It is the group of monotremes counted (monotremes) and is the only known representative of this group of outside the Australian space lived.
Three teeth, two lower and one upper molar, were found from Monotrematum sudamericanum . These fossils come from Punta Peligro in the Argentine province of Chubut and are dated to the Lower Paleocene . The molars are similar to those of the Australian genus Obdurodon , which lived in the Miocene , but are twice as large. Monotrematum sudamericanum is in the family of Ornithorhynchidae filed, which included present-day platypus is expected. While today's species is toothless, numerous fossil ancestors of the platypus still had teeth. On the basis of these teeth, intensive attempts are made to determine the phylogenetic relationships between the mammals and the other mammals, see also the systematics of the mammals .
At the time of Monotrematum sudamericanum , the continent of Gondwana had not yet completely broken up, South America , the Antarctic continent and Australia still formed a common land mass. Therefore, the spread of the ubiquitous mammals otherwise known only from Australia can easily be explained. Presumably there was also an ancient mammal fauna on the Antarctic continent, but there is no fossil evidence for this.
literature
- TS Kemp: The Origin & Evolution of Mammals. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2005, ISBN 0-19-850761-5 .