Patagorhynchus

<i>Patagorhynchus</i>

Patagorhynchus

Extinct genus of monotremes

Patagorhynchus is a genus of prehistoric monotreme mammal from the Late Cretaceous (early Maastrichtian) Chorrillo Formation of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. The genus contains a single species, Patagorhynchus pascuali. The holotype, MPM-PV-23087, consists of a lower right molar attached to a fragment of the dentary. It was collected near Rio Gallegos, Santa Cruz, Argentina in 2022 and is housed in the Museo Padre Molina.[1]

Quick Facts Scientific classification, Binomial name ...

Etymology

The genus name comes from Patago, referring to Patagonia and Greek rhynchus, meaning nose. The species name pascuali honors Argentine paleomammalogist Rosendo Pascual.[1]

Evolution

Patagorynchus represents the oldest known monotreme species from South America, indicating that they had already arrived in the region by the end of the Cretaceous, and were present in Antarctica during the Late Cretaceous.[2][1]

Classification

Chimento et al. (2023) recovered Patagorhynchus as a monotreme mammal. The simplified results of their phylogenetic analyses are shown in the cladogram below:[1]

Monotremaformes

References

  1. [1]
    Chimento, Nicolás R.; Agnolín, Federico L.; Manabe, Makoto; Tsuihiji, Takanobu; Rich, Thomas H.; Vickers-Rich, Patricia; Novas, Fernando E. (2023-02-16). "First monotreme from the Late Cretaceous of South America". Communications Biology. 6 (1): 146. doi:10.1038/s42003-023-04498-7. ISSN 2399-3642. PMC 9935847. PMID 36797304.
  2. [2]
    Thompson, Joanna (2023-03-10). "Ancient platypus-like fossil could rewrite the history of egg-laying mammals". Live Science. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Patagorhynchus, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.