Xenungulata

Xenungulata
Temporal range: Late Paleocene-Early Eocene
(Riochican-Casamayoran)
~58.6–48.7 Ma
Interpretation of Carodnia vieirai
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Placentalia
Clade: †Meridiungulata
Order: †Xenungulata
Paula Couto 1952
Family and genera[3]

Xenungulata ("strange ungulates") is an order of extinct and primitive South American hoofed mammals that lived from the Late Paleocene to Early Eocene (Itaboraian to Casamayoran in the SALMA classification). Fossils of the order are known from deposits in Brazil, Argentina, Peru,[4] and Colombia. The best known member of this enigmatic order is the genus Carodnia, a tapir-like and -sized animal with a gait similar to living African elephants.[5]

  1. ^ Carodniidae in the Paleobiology Database. Retrieved May 2013.
  2. ^ Gelfo, Javier N.; García-López, Daniel A.; Bergqvist, Lilian P. (2020). "Phylogenetic relationships and palaeobiology of a new xenungulate (Mammalia: Eutheria) from the Palaeogene of Argentina". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 18 (12): 993–1007. doi:10.1080/14772019.2020.1715496. S2CID 213052956.
  3. ^ "Xenungulata". Palaeocritti. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
  4. ^ Antoine et al. 2015
  5. ^ Fariña, Vizcaíno & De Iuliis 2013, p. 86