Patagosmilus
| Patagosmilus Temporal range: 15.5–13.8 Ma | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
| Order: | Sparassodonta |
| Family: | Thylacosmilidae |
| Genus: | Patagosmilus † |
| Species: | P. goini |
| Binomial name | |
| Patagosmilus goini Forasiepi & Carlini, 2010 | |
Patagosmilus ("Patagonian knife" in Greek) is an extinct genus of meat-eating metatherian mammal of the Thylacosmilidae family, that lived in the middle of the Miocene in South America. Like another representatives of this family, like Thylacosmilus atrox and Anachlysictis gracilis, it was characterized by its elongated fangs of the upper jaw, similar to the well known "sabertooth cats" (Machairodontinae), which they were ecological equivalents. The general morphology of Patagosmilus suggest that it was less specialized that the latest Thylacosmilus of the Pliocene, but the shape of the teeth, indicates that probably was more related to the former than the even more primitive Anachlysictis of Colombia.[1]
The type species and only known of Patagosmilus is P. goini, that honours to the Argentinean paleontologist Francisco Goín, and was first described and named in 2010 by Analía Forasiepi and Alfredo Carliniego based in the specimen holotype MLP 07-VII-1-1, the remains of a crushed skull and part of an ungual phalange that was discovered in sediments dated in the Middle Miocene Colloncuran) in the west bank of the Chico River, in the Río Negro province in Patagonia, Argentina. This is the first representative of Thylacosmilidae which have been found remains in the Patagonia, and the first genus recognised, along with Thylacosmilus and Anachlysictis that is an indisputable member of this group.[1]