''Punahyrax'' 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 ...

placental Placental mammals (infraclass Placentalia ) are one of the three extant subdivisions of the class Mammalia, the other two being Monotremata and Marsupialia. Placentalia contains the vast majority of extant mammals, which are partly distinguished ...

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 ...

belonging to the family

Archaeohyracidae Archaeohyracidae is an extinct family of Notoungulata, notoungulate mammals known from the Paleocene through the Oligocene of South America.McKenna, Malcolm C., and Bell, Susan K. 1997. ''Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level.'' Colum ...

, within the order

Notoungulata 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 ...

, and

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

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 ...

. Its fossilized remains were discovered in

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 ...

, and were found in the

Geste Formation The Geste Formation () is a fossiliferous geologic formation of the Puna Plateau in the western Salta Province and northern Catamarca Province of the Argentine Northwest, northwestern Argentina. The formation, reaching a thickness of , is the ol ...

, near Antofagasta de la Sierra in the

Catamarca Province Catamarca () is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. The province had a population of 429,556 as per the , and covers an area of 102,602 km2. Its literacy rate is 95.5%. Neighbouring provinces are (clockwise, f ...

, and in the Pozuelos Formation in the

Salta Province Salta () is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the east clockwise Formosa Province, Formosa, Chaco Province, Chaco, Santiago del Estero Province, Santiago del Es ...

. Those sites are considered to represent a fauna dated from the

Mustersan The Mustersan age is a period of geologic time (48.0–42.0 Mya (unit), Ma) within the Eocene epoch of the Paleogene, used more specifically within the South American land mammal age (SALMA) classification. It follows the Casamayoran and precedes th ...

, the South American Late

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 ...

Etymology

The name ''Punahyrax'' is composed of the prefix ''Puna-'', the Quechua word designing the central

altiplano The Altiplano (Spanish language, Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechuan languages, Quechua and Aymara language, Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla people, Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extens ...

of the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

, and who gave its name to the

puna grassland The puna grassland ecoregion, part of the Andean montane grasslands and shrublands biome, is found in the central Andes Mountains of South America. It is considered one of the eight Natural Regions in Peru,Pulgar Vidal, Javier: Geografía del Per ...

ecoregion, and of the suffix ''-hyrax'', commonly used in the taxonomy of

. The species name, ''Punahyrax bondesioi'', honors the paleontologist Pedro Bondesio.

Description

''Punahyrax'' was one of the smaller archaeohyracids, approximately 30% smaller than '' Archaeohyrax''. Apart from its size, it was distinguished from its relatives by the absence of the anterolingual cingulum in the upper molars and of the trigonid fossa in the lower molars.

Holotype

The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

MLP 88-V-10-6 is a fragmentary mandible preserving the second molar, kept in the

La Plata Museum The La Plata Museum () is a natural history museum in La Plata, Argentina. It is part of the (Natural Sciences School) of the National University of La Plata. The building, long, today houses three million fossils and relics (including 44,000 bo ...

, in

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q104884577 Typotheres Eocene mammals of South America Paleogene Argentina Fossils of Argentina Fossil taxa described in 2008 Prehistoric placental genera