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''Charruatoxodon'' is an extinct
monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...
genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
of notoungulate belonging to the family
Toxodontidae Toxodontidae is an extinct family of notoungulate mammals, known from the Oligocene to the Holocene (11,000 BP) of South America, with one genus, '' Mixotoxodon'', also known from the Pleistocene of Central America and southwestern North Ameri ...
. It lived from the
Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Early Pleistocene in what is now southern
Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
. Its remains have been found in the San José member of the
Raigón Formation Raigón is a populated centre and suburb of San José de Mayo, capital city of San José Department in southern Uruguay. Location The suburb is located just north of Route 11, east of the city, across the river Río San José Rio or Río is ...
, near
Montevideo Montevideo () is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . Montevideo is situated on the southern ...
.


History

The holotype of the genus, FC-DPV-514, was described in 1842 by
Alcide d'Orbigny Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny (6 September 1802 – 30 June 1857) was a French naturalist who made major contributions in many areas, including zoology (including malacology), palaeontology, geology, archaeology and anthrop ...
and Charles Léopold Laurillard, who assigned it to the species '' Dinotoxodon paranensis''. They believed the specimen to come from the
Upper Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million years ago) to 5.333 Ma. The ...
Camacho Formation Camacho is a surname of Spanish, Portuguese or French origin. Notable people with the surname include: * Camacho (wrestler), one of the stage names of Tevita Fifita (born 1983), Tongan-American professional wrestler * Alejandro Camacho (born 1954) ...
. The assignation to the species ''D. paranensis'' was contested by Pérez-García in 2004, who only assigned it to the genus ''Dinotoxodon''. In 2013, a study by Perea, Rinderknecht, Ubilla, Bostelmann and Martinez assigned it as Toxodontidae indet., and estimated its remains to be more recent than initially thought, likely the result of the fall of a overlying block containing the remains inside an earlier deposit, and assigned it to the
Montehermosan The Montehermosan age is a period of geologic time (6.8–4.0 Ma) within the Miocene and Pliocene epochs of the Neogene used more specifically with South American Land Mammal Ages. It follows the Huayquerian and precedes the Chapadmalalan The C ...
-
Ensenadan The Ensenadan age is a period of geologic time (1.2–0.8 Ma) within the Early Pleistocene epoch of the Quaternary used more specifically with South American Land Mammal Ages. It follows the Uquian and precedes the Lujanian The Lujanian age is a ...
Raigón Formation Raigón is a populated centre and suburb of San José de Mayo, capital city of San José Department in southern Uruguay. Location The suburb is located just north of Route 11, east of the city, across the river Río San José Rio or Río is ...
. In 2022, a revision of the specimen led by Ferrero, Schmidt, Pérez-García, Perea and Ribeiro finally erected the new genus and species ''Charruatoxodon uruguayensis'', using FC-DPV-514 as
holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...
.


Etymology

The genus name, ''Charruatoxodon'', is composed from the suffix -''toxodon'', referring to its relative ''
Toxodon ''Toxodon'' (meaning "bow tooth" in reference to the curvature of the teeth) is an extinct genus of South American mammals from the Late Miocene to early Holocene epochs ( Mayoan to Lujanian in the SALMA classification) (about 11.6 million to ...
'', and the prefix ''Charrua''-, referring to the
Charrúa The Charrúa were an indigenous people or Indigenous Nation of the Southern Cone in present-day Uruguay and the adjacent areas in Argentina ( Entre Ríos) and Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul). They were a semi-nomadic people who sustained themsel ...
natives, who lived in southern Uruguay before the
Spanish colonization The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predece ...
and suffered a violent genocide organized by the newly formed Uruguayan government in 1831. The species name, ''urugayensis'', is given after the country were its holotype was found,
Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
.


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q111271162 Toxodonts Pleistocene mammals of South America Pliocene mammals of South America Miocene mammals of South America Pleistocene genus extinctions Neogene Uruguay Pleistocene Uruguay Fossils of Uruguay Ensenadan Uquian Chapadmalalan Montehermosan Fossil taxa described in 2022 Prehistoric placental genera