''Didolodus'' is an extinct genus of mammals from

Middle Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''Ēṓs'', ' Dawn') a ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. It is an

ungulate Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Euungulata ("true ungulates"), which primarily consists of large mammals with Hoof, hooves. Once part of the clade "Ungulata" along with the clade Paenungulata, "Ungulata" has since been determined ...

mammal of uncertain affinities, possibly related to

Litopterna Litopterna (from "smooth heel") is an extinction, extinct order of South American native ungulates that lived from the Paleocene to the Pleistocene-Holocene around 62.5 million to 12,000 years ago (or possibly as late as 3,500 years ago), and we ...

, though this is uncertain due to the lack of reliable post-cranial remains, and for now remains

Meridiungulata South American native ungulates, commonly abbreviated as SANUs, are extinct ungulate-like mammals that were indigenous to South America from the Paleocene (from at least 63 million years ago) until the end of the Late Pleistocene (~12,000 years a ...

incertae sedis or is a term used for a taxonomy (biology), taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...

''.Javier Nicolás, The alleged astragalar remains of Didolodus Ameghino, 1897 (Mammalia, Panameriungulata) and a critic of isolated bone association models, 2012 Its remains were found in the

Sarmiento Formation The Sarmiento Formation (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Formación Sarmiento''), in older literature described as the Casamayor Formation, is a geological formation in Chubut Province, Argentina, in central Patagonia, which spans around 30 million y ...

of Patagonia.''Didolodus''
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks was a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database, a large relational database assembled by hundreds of paleontologists from around the world. History Fossilworks was cr ...

.org ''Didolodus'' probably was a quick-footed creature which probably lived like early

s such as ''

Propalaeotherium ''Propalaeotherium'' was an early genus of perissodactyl Endemism, endemic to Europe and Asia during the early Eocene. There are currently six recognised species within the genus, with ''P. isselanum'' as the type species (named by Georges Cuvier ...

'', based on its highly similar

teeth A tooth (: teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, tear ...

. It was around in length, with short limbs and a long tail.

Phylogeny

Cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

after Gelfo and Sigé, 2011:

References

Didolodontids Eocene mammals of South America Divisaderan Paleogene Argentina Fossils of Argentina Fossil taxa described in 1897 Taxa named by Florentino Ameghino Prehistoric placental genera Golfo San Jorge Basin Sarmiento Formation {{paleo-mammal-stub