New cladotherian mammal from southern Chile and the evolution of mesungulatid meridiolestidans at the dusk of the Mesozoic era
- Martinelli, Agustín Guillermo
- Soto Acuña, Sergio
- Goin, Francisco Javier
- Kaluza, Jonatan Ezequiel
- Bostelmann, J. Enrique
- Fonseca, Pedro H. M.
- Reguero, Marcelo Alfredo
- Leppe, Marcelo
- Vargas, Alexander O.
DOIAbstract
In the last decades, several discoveries have uncovered the complexity of mammalian evolution during the Mesozoic Era, including important Gondwanan lineages: the australosphenidans, gondwanatherians, and meridiolestidans (Dryolestoidea). Most often, their presence and diversity is documented by isolated teeth and jaws. Here, we describe a new meridiolestidan mammal, Orretherium tzen gen. et sp. nov., from the Late Cretaceous of southern Chile, based on a partial jaw with five cheek teeth in locis and an isolated upper premolar. Phylogenetic analysis places Orretherium as the earliest divergence within Mesungulatidae, before other forms such as the Late Cretaceous Mesungulatum and Coloniatherium, and the early Paleocene Peligrotherium. The ...
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