Early Late Cretaceous mammals from southern Patagonia (Santa Cruz Province, Argentina)

MARTIN T; GOIN FJ; SCHULTZ JA; GELFO JN

CRETACEOUS RESEARCH (PRINT)

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2021

0195-6671

The Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Mata Amarilla Formation in western Central Santa Cruz Province of Argentina has yielded fragmentary teeth of a large ?docodontan, an australosphenidan, a meridiolestidan (Amarillodon meridionalis gen. et sp. nov.), and a stem dryolestid (Treslagosodon shehuensis gen. et sp. nov.). These represent the first possible records for docodontans, Cretaceous australosphenidans, and stem dryolestids in South America. Both ?docodontan tooth 65 fragments are unusually large and exhibit potential durophagous adaptation. The 66 Amarillodon gen. nov. lower (?deciduous) posterior premolar has a trigonid 67 angulation of 100° and is autapomorphic by a large and exoedaenodont distolabial 68 accessory cusp on the distal cingulid. Both the mesial and distal cingulid are shelf-69 like. The mesiolabial upper molar fragment of the ausktribosphenid 70 australosphenidan is similar to an upper m1 of aff. ?Bishops from the early Albian 71 (Lower Cretaceous) of Australia by its large stylar cusp ?C and breached paracone. 72 The lower molar of the new stem dryolestid is characterized by a large talonid cusp d 73 and a mesio-distally strongly compressed mesial root that is weaker than the distal 74 one. The australosphenidan, if corroborated, suggests faunal interrelationships 75 between Australia and South America by the late Early/early Late Cretaceous