Megadolodus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Megadolodus | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | †Litopterna |
| Family: | †Proterotheriidae |
| Genus: | †Megadolodus McKenna, 1956 |
| Species: | †M. molariformis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Megadolodus molariformis McKenna, 1956 | |
Megadolodus is an extinct genus of proterotheriid litopterns that inhabited South America during the Miocene epoch.[1]
The first fossils of Megadolodus were uncovered from the Villavieja Formation, in the fossil locality La Venta, in what is today Colombia, in terrains dated from the Middle Miocene, between 13.5 and 11.8 millions of years ago. The genus was described in 1956 after the holotype UCMP 39270, consisting in a left mandible preserving the fourth premolar, the first molar and roots from the second molar, and discovered during an expedition organized by the University of California and directed by Ruben A. Stirton. Those few remains led Malcolm Carnegie McKenna, who described them in his 1956 article, to believe they originated from a late surviving Didolodontidae, a family of primitive ungulates that went extinct during the end of the Eocene, 25 millions of years before the apparition of Megadolodus in the fossil record; hence its generic name, meaning "large Didolodus", a characteristic genus from this family.[2] This classification supported the theory that the South American tropical zone acted as a refuge for primitive species during the Neogene.[3]
New remains of Megadolodus were only uncovered during the 1980s from the Honda Group, in the Magdalena River Valley of Colombia, including parts of the legs, mandibles, teeth, vertebrae, pelvis, and ribs, permitting a better understanding of the general anatomy of the animal, and allowing to compare it with litopterns, resulting in its reclassification as an unusual member of the family Proterotheriidae. The discovery of a similar proterotheriid, Bounodus enigmaticus from Venezuela, confirmed that they belonged to a lineage of specialised litopterns from northern South America, classified in its own subfamily, the Megadolodinae.[4] In 2024, a partial mandible and teeth of Megadolodus were discovered from the Ipururo Formation, located in the Peruvian Amazon.[5]
