Asmodeus Temporal range: Late Oligocene ~ | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | † Notoungulata |
Family: | † Homalodotheriidae |
Genus: | † Asmodeus Ameghino 1894 |
Type species | |
†Asmodeus osborni Ameghino, 1894 | |
Species | |
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Asmodeus is an extinct genus of mammal, belonging to the order Notoungulata. It lived during the Late Oligocene, in what is today South America.
This animal was relatively heavy-shaped, with long, strong and slender limbs. Its hand had four fingers, and a reduced fifth metacarpal. The main characteristic of Asmodeus, which shows its affinities with its relative Homalodotherium , is in the shape of its forelimbs, which made the hind legs lower than the forelegs. The front legs were clawed, and not hooved as in most of the known toxodonts. Compared to Homalodotherium, the reduction of the fifth metacarpal was less important in Asmodeus.
First described in 1894 by Florentino Ameghino, Asmodeus belonged to the family Homalodotheriidae, a group of notoungulates with characteristically elongated and clawed front legs. Two species of Asmodeus are known, including A. osborni, the type species, from the Deseado Formation of Argentine Patagonia, and A. petrasnerus from the Agua de la Piedra Formation in the Mendoza Province of Northern Argentina. The species are mainly distinguished by characteristics of the talus and the calcaneus.
Pyrotherium is an extinct genus of South American ungulate, of the order Pyrotheria, that lived in what is now Argentina and Bolivia, during the Late Oligocene. It was named Pyrotherium because the first specimens were excavated from an ancient volcanic ash deposit. Fossils of the genus have been found in the Deseado and Sarmiento Formations of Argentina and the Salla Formation of Bolivia.
Cramauchenia is an extinct genus of litoptern South American ungulate. Cramauchenia was named by Florentino Ameghino. The name has no literal translation. Instead, it is an anagram of the name of a related genus Macrauchenia. This genus was initially discovered in the Sarmiento Formation in the Chubut Province, in Argentina, and later it was found in the Chichinales Formation in the Río Negro Province and the Cerro Bandera Formation in Neuquén, also in Argentina, in sediments assigned to the SALMA Colhuehuapian, as well as the Agua de la Piedra Formation in Mendoza, in sediments dated to the Deseadan. In 1981 Soria made C. insolita a junior synonym of C. normalis. A specimen of C. normalis was described in 2010 from Cabeza Blanca in the Sarmiento Formation, in sediments assigned to the Deseadan SALMA.
Interatherium is an extinct genus of interatheriid notoungulate from the Early to Middle Miocene (Colhuehuapian-Mayoan). Fossils have been found in the Santa Cruz, Collón Curá and Sarmiento Formations in Argentina.
The Deseadan age is a period of geologic time within the Oligocene epoch of the Paleogene to the Early Miocene epoch of the Neogene, used more specifically within the SALMA classification of South America. It follows the Tinguirirican and precedes the Colhuehuapian age.
The Malargüe Group is a group of geologic formations of the Neuquén Basin of the Mendoza, Neuquén, Río Negro and La Pampa Provinces in northern Patagonia, Argentina. The formations of the Malargüe Group range in age between the middle Campanian to Deseadan, an Oligocene age of the SALMA classification, straddling the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, about 79 million to 30 million years in age. The group overlies the older Neuquén Group, separated by an unconformity dated to 79 Ma. The rocks of the Malargüe Group comprise both marine and continental deposits which are over 400 m (1312 ft) thick in total.
Parastrapotherium is an extinct genus of South American land mammal that existed from the Late Oligocene to the Early Miocene. The genus includes some of the largest and smallest known astrapotherian, but at present no generally recognized description can adequately characterize it.
The Agua de la Piedra Formation is a Late Oligocene geologic formation of the Malargüe Group that crops out in the southernmost Precordillera and northernmost Neuquén Basin in southern Mendoza Province, Argentina.
Prosotherium is an extinct genus of hegetotheriid notoungulate. It lived during the Late Oligocene, and its fossilized remains were found in South America.
Proadinotherium is an extinct genus of toxodontid. It lived between the Late Oligocene and the Early Miocene in what is now South America.
Argyrohippus is an extinct genus of notoungulate, belonging to the family Notohippidae. It lived from the Late Oligocene to the Early Miocene, and its fossilized remains were found in South America.
Propachyrucos is an extinct genus of hegetotheriid notoungulate. It lived from the Late Oligocene to the Early Miocene, in what is today South America.
Trachytherus is an extinct genus of mesotheriid notoungulate that lived from the Late Oligocene to the Early Miocene in what is now South America.
Periphragnis is an extinct genus of isotemnid notoungulates that lived from the Middle Eocene to the Early Oligocene in what is now Argentina and Chile.
Eurygenium is an extinct genus of notoungulate belonging to the family Notohippidae. It lived during the Late Oligocene in what is today South America.
Ancylocoelus is an extinct genus of mammal, belonging to the order Notoungulata. It lived during the Late Oligocene, in what is today Argentina, in South America.
Colpodon is an extinct genus of herbivorous mammal, belonging to the order Notoungulata. It lived during the Early Miocene, in what is today Argentina and Chile, in South America.
Argyrohyrax is an extinct genus of interatheriid notoungulate that lived during the Late Oligocene, of what is now Argentina and Bolivia.
Notopithecus is an extinct genus of Notoungulate, belonging to the suborder Typotheria. It lived from the Middle to the Late Eocene and its fossilized remains were discovered in South America.
Hegetotheriopsis is an extinct genus of hegetotheriid notoungulate. It lived from the Late Oligocene to the Early Miocene, and its fossilized remains are found in Argentina.
Liarthrus is a genus of astrapotheriid mammal known from the Late Oligocene Sarmiento Formation of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. It was described by the Argentine paleontologist Florentino Ameghino in 1895 along with several other genera from the "Pyrotherium Beds", which were then believed to date to the Cretaceous period. Ameghino described Liarthus on the basis of fragmentary, being only a right astragalus, premolar 4, and an incomplete premolar from the upper jaws. Only one species was described, L. copei, the species name honoring the American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope, who lived during the same interval as Ameghino. Liarthrus was synonymized with the other astrapothere Parastrapotherium in 1914 by American mammologist Frederic Loomis, though it was revalidated by a 2008 analysis of Parastrapotherium. Liarthrus was a herbivorous mammal, being an astrapothere, which had large tusks on their skulls and mandibles in addition to a large body size.