A review of the Caroloameghiniidae, Paleogene South American primate-like marsupials (?Didelphimorphia, Peradectoidea)

GOIN FJ

"Festband für Herrn Professor Wighart v. Koenigswald anlässlich seines 65. Geburtstages"

Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung (Palaeontographica Abt. A 278)

Lugar: Stuttgart; Año: 2006; p. 57 - 67

<!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> The Caroloameghiniidae (Mammalia, Marsupialia, Didelphimorphia, Peradectoidea) were small-sized, probably frugivorous marsupials with several features convergent with those of modern primates: strong dentaries, brachydont cheeck-teeth and bunoid molars with wide trigon and talonid basins. Some features are unique among metatherians: proportionally enormous protocone and additional crests between stylar cusps B and D in the upper molars, and a postprotocristid unconnected to the postmetacristid in the lower ones. Procaroloameghinia Marshall 1982 is known from Itaboraian (Late Paleocene) levels of Southeastern Brazil and central Patagonia, as well as, probably, from the Early Eocene of northwestern Patagonia. Caroloameghinia Ameghino 1901 (with only two species, C. mater and C. tenuis) come from Barrancan (Casamayoran pars; Late Eocene) levels of central Patagonia. An additional, still undescribed species here refered to ?Caroloameghinia sp. comes from Tinguirirican (earliest Oligocene) levels of central Patagonia; it constitutes the youngest known record for the family. Caroloameghiniids are peradectoid didelphimorphians, not miocrobiotherians or polydolopimorphians, as previously argued. Their frugivorous adaptations coincide with the largest expansion of tropical-subtropical forests in South America (including high-latitude regions) during the Cenozoic’s “Greenhouse World”. Their extinction (at least in southern South America) at the earliest Oligocene roughly agrees with the global cooling trend that began at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary.