''Patagosmilus'' ("Patagonian knife" in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

) 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 meat-eating

metatherian Metatheria is a mammalian clade that includes all mammals more closely related to marsupials than to placentals. First proposed by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1880, it is a more inclusive group than the marsupials; it contains all marsupials as well ...

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 ...

of the family Thylacosmilidae, that lived in the

Middle Miocene The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), epoch made up of two Stage (stratigraphy), stages: the Langhian and Serravallian stages. The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene. The sub-epoch lasted from 15.97 ± 0. ...

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 ...

.''Patagosmilus''
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 Like other representatives of this family, such as '' Thylacosmilus atrox'' and '' Anachlysictis gracilis'', it was characterized by its elongated

fang A fang is a long, pointed tooth. In mammals, a fang is a modified maxillary tooth, used for biting and tearing flesh. In snakes, it is a specialized tooth that is associated with a venom gland (see snake venom). Spiders also have external fangs, ...

s of the upper jaw, similar to the well known "sabertooth cats" (

Machairodontinae Machairodontinae (from Ancient Greek μάχαιρα ''Makhaira, machaira,'' a type of Ancient Greek sword and ὀδόντος ''odontos'' meaning tooth) is an extinct subfamily of carnivoran mammals of the cat family Felidae, representing the ...

), of which they were ecological equivalents. Despite being geologically younger than ''Anachlysictis'', the morphology of ''Patagosmilus'' (including a bowed molar row and extremely long, "saber-like" upper canines) suggests that this species was more closely related to ''Thylacosmilus'' than ''Anachlysictis'', though in other respects this species is less specialized than ''Thylacosmilus''.

Description

The only known species of ''Patagosmilus'' is ''P. goini'', named in honor of the Argentine

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

Francisco Goín. This species was first described and named in 2010 by Analía Forasiepi and Alfredo Carlini based on the specimen MLP 07-VII-1-1, a crushed

skull The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...

and several postcranial fragments including part of an ungual

phalanx The phalanx (: phalanxes or phalanges) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar polearms tightly packed together. The term is particularly used t ...

that was discovered in the

Collón Curá Formation The Collón Curá Formation () is a Middle Miocene fossiliferous geological formation of the southern Neuquén Basin in northwestern Patagonia and the western Cañadón Asfalto Basin of central Patagonia, Argentina. The formation crops out fro ...

dated to the Middle Miocene ( Colloncuran) on the west bank of the Chico River, in

Río Negro Province Río Negro (, ''Black River'') is a province of Argentina, located in northern Patagonia. Neighboring provinces are from the south clockwise Chubut, Neuquén, Mendoza, La Pampa and Buenos Aires. To the east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Its cap ...

of Argentine

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 ...

. This is the first representative of Thylacosmilidae with remains found in Patagonia, and the first genus recognised, along with ''Thylacosmilus'' and ''Anachlysictis'' that is an indisputable member of this group.Analía M. Forasiepi, Alfredo A. Carlini. A new thylacosmilid (Mammalia, Metatheria, Sparassodonta) from the Miocene of Patagonia. ''Zootaxa''. 2552, ss. 55–68, 2010 (Ing.)

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q9056778 Sparassodonta Miocene mammals of South America Colloncuran Laventan Neogene Argentina Fossils of Argentina Cañadón Asfalto Basin Fossil taxa described in 2010 Prehistoric mammal genera