''Pericotoxodon'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

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 toxodontid

notoungulate Notoungulata is an extinct order of ungulates that inhabited South America from the early Paleocene to the end of the Pleistocene, living from approximately 61 million to 11,000 years ago. Notoungulates were morphologically diverse, with forms re ...

, from the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

period. Fossils of ''Pericotoxodon'' were found near Río Inuya and Mapuya in

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, and in

La Venta La Venta is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Olmec civilization located in the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco. Some of the artifacts have been moved to the museum "Parque - Museo de La Venta", which is in nearby Villaherm ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

and

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

, in deposits dated to the Middle Miocene.

Etymology

The genus name, ''Pericotoxodon'', is derived from "Perico", which was named after José Espíritu Pericó, who discovered the holotype in the La Gaviota locality from the Villavieja Formation of Colombia.Richard H. Madden. "21. A New Toxodontid Notoungulate" (335–354 pp.). In Kay, Richard F.; Madden, Richard H.; Cifelli, Richard L.; Flynn, John J. ''Vertebrate Paleontology in the Neotropics: The Miocene Fauna of a la Venta, Colombia''. Rowman & Littlefield Pub. Inc., 2/1/1997.

References

Toxodonts Miocene mammals of South America Neogene Peru Fossils of Peru Neogene Colombia Fossils of Colombia Laventan Honda Group, Colombia Fossil taxa described in 1997 Prehistoric placental genera {{notoungulate-stub