''Woodburnodon'' is an extinct genus of
microbiotherian
marsupial whose fossils have been found on
Seymour Island,
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...
. It lived during the
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...
epoch.
Taxonomy
The genus is represented by single species, ''Woodburnodon casei'', which was described in 2007 from fossils found on the
Antarctic Peninsula
The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martin in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctica.
...
.
Woodburnodon is currently the only formally described species in the family Woodburnodontidae, although fossils of an unidentified Early Eocene woodburnodontids have also been found in
Patagonia.
Description
''Woodburnodon'' was the largest known member of the order Microbiotheria. It was at least three or four times larger than the
microbiotherid ''
Pachybiotherium'', which has been estimated at .
This would put the size of ''Woodburnodon'' at around .
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q33136792
Prehistoric marsupial genera
Eocene mammals of Antarctica
Fossils of Antarctica
Microbiotheria