Proadiantus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Proadiantus Temporal range: Late Oligocene ~ | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | †Litopterna |
| Family: | †Adianthidae |
| Subfamily: | †Adianthinae |
| Genus: | †Proadiantus Ameghino 1897 |
| Type species | |
| †Proadiantus excavatus Ameghino, 1897 | |
| Species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Proadiantus (Ameghino, 1897) is an extinct genus of adianthid litoptern. It lived during the Late Oligocene, in what is today South America. It consists of only 1 species, Proadiantus excavatus.
This animal is mainly known from fossil remains of its teeth, maxilla and mandible, and its appearance is therefore difficult to restore. It is assumed, from comparison with its better known relatives Adianthus and Adiantoides, that it was a small and slender litoptern.
Proadiantus differs from Adiantoides by its significantly larger size, and it may have been as large as a coyote. The molars had rather low upper crowns; the upper molars had a mesostyle, but no clearly defined metastyle ; the hypoconus was elongated. The talonid of the second lower molar had a complex structure.
