Highly specialized mammalian skulls from the Late Cretaceous of South America

Guillermo W. Rougier (), Sebastián Apesteguía and Leandro C. Gaetano
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Guillermo W. Rougier: University of Louisville
Sebastián Apesteguía: CEBBAD - Fundación de Historia Natural ‘Félix de Azara’, Universidad Maimónides, Hidalgo 775
Leandro C. Gaetano: CONICET, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Av. Rivadavia 1917, C1033AAJ

Nature, 2011, vol. 479, issue 7371, 98-102

Abstract: A new look at South American mammals The first mammalian remains from the early Late Cretaceous of South America are reported, including two partial skulls and jaws of a highly derived dryolestoid. The dryolestoids are primitive, extinct mammals on the stem-lineage leading to marsupials and placentals. They were especially diverse in the Mesozoic of South America, although they have hitherto been known only from teeth. The new find is a mouse-sized creature with big eyes, a long snout and long canines — rather like the 'sabre-toothed squirrel' in the 2002 film Ice Age. This creature opens a new window on to a largely unexplored period in the prehistory of South America.

Date: 2011
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DOI: 10.1038/nature10591

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