Paulogervaisia
Extinct genus of mammals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paulogervaisia is an extinct genus of mammal, belonging to the family Didolodontidae. Its fossilized remains have been found in South America.
| Paulogervaisia Temporal range: Middle Eocene ~ | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Family: | †Didolodontidae |
| Genus: | †Paulogervaisia Ameghino 1901 |
| Type species | |
| Paulogervaisia inusta Ameghino, 1901 | |
| Species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Description
This genus is known only from fossilized teeth, and it is therefore impossible to reconstruct exactly its appearance. Compared with the remains of better known forms, such as his relative Didolodus, it can be inferred that Paulogervaisia could reach one meter in length. Paulogervaisia is characterized by a third upper molar as wide than the second, and by a metaconus in a more lingual position than the paracone. The mesostyle was smaller than in Didolodus. The third lower molar had an entoconid as large than the hypoconulid.
Classification
Paulogervaisia is a member of the Didolodontidae, a mysterious clade of south american mammals from the early Cenozoic, whose exact relationships are not well known. The type species is Paulogervaisia inusta, described by Florentino Ameghino in 1901, based on fossilized remains from the Chubut Province of Argentina, in Patagonia. Ameghino described two other species from the same formation; Lambdaconus mamma and L. porca,[1] now considered as part of Paulogervaisia, and the later as a synonym of the type species. Ameghino believed that Paulogervaisia was an archaic member of the Proboscideans, a sort of link between this group and the so-called "condylarths". It was George Gaylord Simpson who recognized it as didolodontid in 1948.[2]
