''Argentoconodon'' (meaning "

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 ...

cone

tooth 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, tea ...

") is an extinct

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of theriimorph

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

from the Cañadón Asfalto Formation of the Cañadón Asfalto Basin in

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

. When originally described, it was known only from a single molariform tooth, which possessed a combination of primitive and derived features. The tooth is currently held in the Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio, where it was given the specimen number MPEF-PV 1877. New material described in 2011 show that ''Argentoconodon'' was similar to '' Ichthyoconodon'', '' Jugulator'' and '' Volaticotherium'' within the family Triconodontidae, and possibly also '' Triconolestes''.

Aerial locomotion

Several postcranial similarities to '' Volaticotherium'' suggest that ''Argentoconodon'' was capable of gliding. In particular, its femur shares the same shape and proportions as its more complete relative, being highly specialised and without a femoral head, being less competent in rotational movement but more useful in extending the leg and resisting flight stresses. ''Argentoconodons spatio-temporal distribution has been noted as being unusual, in that it is not only a rare Early Jurassic eutriconodont, but also one of the only two

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

n members of this group, the other being the slightly younger '' Condorodon''; other mammals in the Cañadon Asfalto Formation are various

australosphenida The Australosphenida are a clade of mammals, containing mammals with tribosphenic molars, known from the Jurassic to Mid-Cretaceous of Gondwana. Although they have often been suggested to have acquired tribosphenic molars independently from those ...

ns and a putative allothere. This has been considered worthy of interest in the future.

Diet

Like most eutriconodonts ''Argentoconodon'' was most likely animalivorous, its molars adapted to shear. In a study detailing Mesozoic mammal diets it ranks among carnivorous species. This is further corroborated by another study on Mesozoic mammal mandibles, where in plots among carnivorous rather than insectivorous taxa.

References

Eutriconodonta Gliding animals Jurassic mammals of South America Jurassic Argentina Fossils of Argentina Cañadón Asfalto Formation Fossil taxa described in 2007 Taxa named by Guillermo W. Rougier Taxa named by Alberto Garrido Taxa named by Leandro Gaetano Taxa named by Pablo F. Puerta Taxa named by Cynthia Corbitt Taxa named by Michael J. Novacek Monotypic prehistoric mammal genera {{Jurassic-mammal-stub