Qarunavus

Qarunavus Temporal range: Oligocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	† Ptolemaiida
Genus:	† Qarunavus Simons & Gingerich, 1974
Type species
Qarunavus meyeri Simons & Gingerich, 1974

Qarunavus is an extinct genus of mammals in the order Ptolemaiida. A single species, Qarunavus meyeri is known from the Lower Oligocene Jebel Qatrani Formation of modern-day Egypt. Described by Elwyn Simons & Philip Gingerich in 1974, the generic name is a combination of Qarun, the Arabic term for Lake Moeris, and - avus , Latin for "ancestor". The specific epithet honours Grant E. Mayer of the Yale Peabody Museum. ^[1]

Palaeobiology

Ontogeny

The permanent dentition of Q. meyeri erupted very late into its development; subadult specimens still have most of their deciduous dentition, with only two out of six of the permanent cheek teeth having erupted by the subadult stage despite the animal being almost as large as it would have been as an adult by that stage of its life. ^[2]

References

1. Simons, E. L.; Gingerich, Philip D. (1974). "New carnivorous mammals from the Oligocene of Egypt" (PDF). Annals of the Geological Survey of Egypt. 4: 157–166.
2. Kampouridis, Panagiotis; Hartung, Josephina; Augustin, Felix J.; El Atfy, Haytham; Ferreira, Gabriel S. (1 December 2023). "Dental eruption and adult dentition of the enigmatic ptolemaiid Qarunavus meyeri from the Oligocene of the Fayum Depression (Egypt) revealed by micro-computed tomography clarifies its phylogenetic position". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society . 199 (4): 1078–1091. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad065. ISSN   0024-4082 . Retrieved 15 December 2025– via Oxford Academic.