Neotamandua

Neotamandua
Temporal range: Mid Miocene-Late Pliocene (Laventan-Chapadmalalan)
~13.8–3.0 Ma
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Superorder: Xenarthra
Order: Pilosa
Suborder: Vermilingua
Family: Myrmecophagidae
Genus: Neotamandua
Rovereto 1914
Species
  • N. borealis Hirschfeld 1976
  • N. conspicua Rovereto 1914[1]
  • N. greslebini Kraglievich 1940
  • N. magna Ameghino 1919

Neotamandua is an extinct genus of anteaters that lived in the Miocene to Pliocene in South America. Their fossils have been found in the Miocene Collón Cura Formation of Argentina,[2] the Honda Group at La Venta in Colombia and the Pliocene Araucano Formation in Argentina.[3] Its closest living relatives are the giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) and tamanduas (genus Tamandua).[3][2] The species Neotamandua borealis was suggested to be an ancestor of the giant anteater.[4] Patterson (1992) suggested the Neotamandua fossils are very similar to Myrmecophaga, which would mean Neotamandua may be congeneric with Myrmecophaga.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Rovereto, Cayetano (1914). "Los estratos Araucanos y sus fósiles". Anales del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Buenos Aires. 25: 1–247.
  2. 1 2 3 "Neotamandua". Paleontology Database. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  3. 1 2 Gaudin, T.J. & Branham, D.G. (1998). "The Phylogeny of the Myrmecophagidae (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Vermilingua) and the Relationship of Eurotamandua to Vermilingua" (PDF). Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 5 (3): 248. doi:10.1023/a:1020512529767. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  4. ↑ Hirschfeld, S.E. (1976). "A New Fossil Anteater ( Edentata , Mammalia ) from Colombia , S . A . and Evolution of the Vermilingua". Journal of Paleontology. 50 (3). JSTOR 1303522/.
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