List of mammals of Argentina

This is a list of the mammal species recorded in Argentina. As of February 2011, the list contains 398 mammal species from Argentina, of which 1 is extinct, 6 are critically endangered, 14 are endangered, 19 are vulnerable, and 31 are near-threatened.[n 1]

The following tags are used to highlight each species' conservation status as assessed by the IUCN:

EX Extinct No reasonable doubt that the last individual has died.
EW Extinct in the Wild Known only to survive in captivity or as a naturalized population well outside its historic range.
CR Critically Endangered The species is in imminent danger of extinction in the wild.
EN Endangered The species is facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.
VU Vulnerable The species is facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.
NT Near Threatened The species does not qualify as being at high risk of extinction but is likely to do so in the future.
LC Least Concern The species is not currently at risk of extinction in the wild.
DD Data Deficient There is inadequate information to assess the risk of extinction for this species.
NE Not Evaluated The conservation status of the species has not been studied.

Subclass: Theria

Infraclass: Metatheria

Superorder: Ameridelphia

Order: Didelphimorphia (common opossums)
Woolly opossum
(Caluromys sp.)
Water opossum
White-eared opossum
Mouse opossum
(Marmosa sp.)
Gray short-tailed opossum
Elegant fat-tailed mouse opossum

Didelphimorphia is the order of common opossums of the Western Hemisphere. Opossums probably diverged from the basic South American marsupials in the late Cretaceous or early Paleocene.They are small to medium-sized marsupials, about the size of a large house cat, with a long snout and prehensile tail.

Order: Paucituberculata (shrew opossums)

There are six extant species of shrew opossum. They are small shrew-like marsupials confined to the Andes.

Superorder: Australidelphia

Order: Microbiotheria (monito del monte)
Monito del monte on bamboo

The monito del monte is the only extant member of its family and the only surviving member of an ancient order, Microbiotheria. It appears to be more closely related to Australian marsupials than to other Neotropic marsupials; this is a reflection of the South American origin of all Australasian marsupials.[1]

Infraclass: Eutheria

Superorder: Xenarthra

Order: Cingulata (armadillos)
Nine-banded armadillo
Pink fairy armadillo
Six-banded armadillo
Southern three-banded armadillo

Armadillos are small mammals with a bony armored shell. There are 21 extant species in the Americas, 19 of which are only found in South America, where they originated. Their much larger relatives, the pampatheres and glyptodonts, once lived in North and South America but became extinct following the appearance of humans.

Order: Pilosa (anteaters, sloths and tamanduas)
Brown-throated sloth
Giant anteater

The order Pilosa is extant only in the Americas and includes the anteaters, sloths, and tamanduas. Their ancestral home is South America. Numerous ground sloths, some of which reached the size of elephants, were once present in both North and South America, as well as on the Antilles, but all went extinct following the arrival of humans.

Superorder: Euarchontoglires

Order: Primates
Black-striped capuchin
Black capuchin
Black howler female and male

The order Primates contains humans and their closest relatives: lemurs, lorisoids, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes.

Order: Rodentia (rodents)
Brazilian porcupine
Short-tailed chinchilla
Southern viscacha
Plains viscacha
Brazilian guinea pig
Patagonian mara
Capybara
Azara's agouti
Central American agouti
Lowland paca
Haig's tuco-tuco
Plains viscacha rat
Coypu

Rodents make up the largest order of mammals, with over 40 percent of mammalian species. They have two incisors in the upper and lower jaw which grow continually and must be kept short by gnawing. Most rodents are small though the capybara can weigh up to 45 kg (100 lb).

Brazilian squirrel
Sanborn's grass mouse
Small vesper mouse
Bunny rat
Order: Lagomorpha (lagomorphs)
Tapeti

The lagomorphs comprise two families, Leporidae (hares and rabbits), and Ochotonidae (pikas). Though they can resemble rodents, and were classified as a superfamily in that order until the early 20th century, they have since been considered a separate order. They differ from rodents in a number of physical characteristics, such as having four incisors in the upper jaw rather than two.

Superorder: Laurasiatheria

Order: Chiroptera (bats)
Desert red bat
Hoary bat
Big free-tailed bat
Pale spear-nosed bat
Pallas's long-tongued bat
Great fruit-eating bat
Little yellow-shouldered bat
Common vampire bat
White-winged vampire bat

The bats' most distinguishing feature is that their forelimbs are developed as wings, making them the only mammals in the world naturally capable of flight. Bat species account for about 20% of all mammals.

Order: Carnivora (carnivorans)
Geoffroy's cat
Kodkod
Andean mountain cat
Culpeo
Crab-eating fox
Bush dog
Maned wolf
Spectacled bear
Marine otter

There are over 260 species of carnivorans, the majority of which feed primarily on meat. They have a characteristic skull shape and dentition.

Order: Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates)
Lowland tapir

The odd-toed ungulates are browsing and grazing mammals. They are usually large to very large, and have relatively simple stomachs and a large middle toe. South America once had a great diversity of ungulates of native origin, but these dwindled after the interchange with North America, and disappeared entirely following the arrival of humans. Sequencing of collagen from fossils of one recently extinct species each of notoungulates and litopterns has indicated that these orders comprise a sister group to the perissodactyls.[2]

Order: Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates and cetaceans)
Chacoan peccary
Vicuña
Marsh deer
Southern pudú

The weight of even-toed ungulates is borne about equally by the third and fourth toes, rather than mostly or entirely by the third as in perissodactyls. There are about 220 noncetacean artiodactyl species, including many that are of great economic importance to humans.

Infraorder: Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises)
Southern right whale
Blue whale
Pygmy sperm whale
Commerson's dolphin
Spinner dolphin
Hourglass dolphin
Dusky dolphin
Risso's dolphin
Orca
False killer whale
Long-finned pilot whale

The infraorder Cetacea includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. They are the mammals most fully adapted to aquatic life with a spindle-shaped nearly hairless body, protected by a thick layer of blubber, and forelimbs and tail modified to provide propulsion underwater. Their closest extant relatives are the hippos, which are artiodactyls, from which cetaceans descended; cetaceans are thus also artiodactyls.

Notes

  1. ↑ This list is derived from the IUCN Red List which lists species of mammals and includes those mammals that have recently been classified as extinct (since 1500 AD). The taxonomy and naming of the individual species is based on those used in existing Wikipedia articles as of 21 May 2007 and supplemented by the common names and taxonomy from the IUCN, Smithsonian Institution, or University of Michigan where no Wikipedia article was available. The list was partially updated in January 2011.

References

  1. ↑ Nilsson, M. A.; Churakov, G.; Sommer, M.; Tran, N. V.; Zemann, A.; Brosius, J.; Schmitz, J. (2010-07-27). Penny, D., ed. "Tracking Marsupial Evolution Using Archaic Genomic Retroposon Insertions". PLoS Biology (Public Library of Science) 8 (7): e1000436. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000436. PMC 2910653. PMID 20668664.
  2. ↑ Welker, F.; Collins, M. J.; Thomas, J. A.; Wadsley, M.; Brace, S.; Cappellini, E.; Turvey, S. T.; Reguero, M.; Gelfo, J. N.; Kramarz, A.; Burger, J.; Thomas-Oates, J.; Ashford, D. A.; Ashton, P. D.; Rowsell, K.; Porter, D. M.; Kessler, B.; Fischer, R.; Baessmann, C.; Kaspar, S.; Olsen, J. V.; Kiley, P.; Elliott, J. A.; Kelstrup, C. D.; Mullin, V.; Hofreiter, M.; Willerslev, E.; Hublin, J.-J.; Orlando, L.; Barnes, I.; MacPhee, R. D. E. (2015-03-18). "Ancient proteins resolve the evolutionary history of Darwin’s South American ungulates". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature14249. ISSN 0028-0836.

See also

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