Archaeohyrax

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Archaeohyrax
Temporal range: Mid Eocene-Late Oligocene (Mustersan-Deseadan)
~48.0–23.03  Ma
Archaeohyrax patagonicus.jpg
Archaeohyrax patagonicus
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order:† Notoungulata
Family:† Archaeohyracidae
Genus:† Archaeohyrax
Ameghino, 1897
Type species
†Archaeohyrax patagonicus
Ameghino, 1897
Species
  • A. patagonicusAmeghino 1897
  • A. proavusAmeghino 1897
  • A. propheticusAmeghino 1897
  • A. suniensisBillet et al. 2009

Archaeohyrax is a genus of extinct notoungulate mammal known from the Middle Eocene to Oligocene of Argentina and Bolivia. [1] [2]

Contents

Description

The holotype of the type species, A. patagonicus, is a skull with a tall, blunt muzzle, and high-crowned cheek teeth. [3] A. patagonicus was an extremely hypsodont animal, scoring 2.74 on the Hypsodonty Index. [4] When the skull is compared to those of the superficially similar hyraxes, the remains suggest a small animal approximately 45 centimetres (18 in) long. [3] The species A. suniensis is distinguished from A. patagonicus by the second mental foramen being situated more anteriorly in the former than in the latter, by the stylomastoid foramen in A. suniensis being situated closer to the tympanohyal recess than in A. patagonicus, and by the smaller facial extent of the premaxillae of A. suniensis. [5]

Distribution

Fossils of Archaeohyrax have been found in the Sarmiento, Agua de la Piedra, and Deseado Formations of Argentina and the Salla Formation of the Salla-Luribay Basin of Bolivia. [6]

References

  1. ↑ Billet, G., B. Patterson, and C. de Muizon. "The latest Archaeohyracid representatives (Mammalia, Notoungulata) from the Deseadan of Bolivia and Argentina." 4th European Meeting on Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Latin America. E. Dıaz-Martınez and I. Rábano (eds.). Cuadernos del Museo Geominero. Eds. E. Díaz-Martínez, and I. Rábano. Vol. 8. 2007.
  2. ↑ McKenna, Malcolm C., and Bell, Susan K. 1997. Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. Columbia University Press, New York, 631 pp. ISBN   0-231-11013-8
  3. 1 2 Hernández Del Pino, Santiago; Seoane, Federico; Cerdeño, Esperanza (2022). "New craniodental information and taxonomic decisions of the typotherians (Notoungulata) from the late Oligocene of Mendoza, central-western Argentina". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica . 67. doi: 10.4202/app.00974.2022 . hdl: 11336/202725 . ISSN   0567-7920.
  4. ↑ Wilson, Laura A. B.; Madden, Richard H.; Kay, Richard F.; Sánchez-Villagra, Marcelo R. (Spring 2012). "Testing a developmental model in the fossil record: molar proportions in South American ungulates" . Paleobiology . 38 (2): 308–321. doi:10.1666/11001.1. ISSN   0094-8373 . Retrieved 20 September 2025– via Cambridge Core.
  5. ↑ Billet, Guillaume; Patterson, Bryan; De Muizon, Christian (30 January 2009). "Craniodental anatomy of late Oligocene archaeohyracids (Notoungulata, Mammalia) from Bolivia and Argentina and new phylogenetic hypotheses". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society . 155 (2): 458–509. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00445.x . Retrieved 23 December 2025– via Oxford Academic.
  6. ↑ Archaeohyrax at Fossilworks.org


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