Ferugliotherium is a genus of fossil mammals from the Campanian andor Maastrichtian period of Argentina. It contains a single species, Ferugli otherium windhauseni, which was first described in 1986. It is thought to have been a small animal, with a body mass of about 70 g, and may have eaten insects and plant material.
About Ferugliotherium in brief
Ferugliotherium is a genus of fossil mammals from the Campanian andor Maastrichtian period of Argentina. It contains a single species, Ferugli otherium windhauseni, which was first described in 1986. It is thought to have been a small animal, with a body mass of about 70 g, and may have eaten insects and plant material. Its remains have been found in two geological formations of southern Argentina, where it is part of a mammal fauna that also includes the sudamericid Gondwanatherium and a variety of dryolestoids. It was originally interpreted on the basis of a single brachydont molar as a member of Multituberculata, an extinct group of small, rodent-like mammals. Since 2005, a relationship between gondwanatheres and multituberculates has again received support. A closely related animal, Trapalcotherium, was described in 2009 on theBased on a single tooth. About twenty teeth and a jaw fragment have been referred to Feruglium, but the assignment of many of these is controversial or has been superseded. The identity of a few additional isolated premolars assigned toFeruglotherium is also uncertain. They share an essentially similar pattern on the occlusal surface of mf1 and mf2, similar incisors, backward jaw movement during chewing, and enamel with small prisms.
They bear two longitudinal rows of three or four cusps and transverse crests and furrows. A single example each of the second lower and first upper molariform show that these teeth also had longitudinal cusp rows and transversal furrows and crests. The p4 is preserved in this fragment. It is blade-shaped and resembles multituberculationate p4s. However, the determination of this fossil as Feruglisotherium is in question. The name windhausen refers to geologists who studied the geology of Patagonia: Egidio Feruglio and Anselmo Windhausen, respectively. The generic name, Vucetichia gracilis commemorates Argentinean paleontologist Guus Guus Krause, and the specific name, gracis refers to the animal’s small size. In 1990, David Wuseuse and Bonaparte argued that Gondondwania should be placed within the group of Mult iturculata. Two years later, Bonapartes and Krause argued that the animal’s small size should be within the order Gondatheria. In subsequent years, other finds permitted a more confident assignment to Multitberculata and the name was changed to Vucatichia. The species is now considered a synonym of Feruglyotherium. It has been named after a small upper molars of a small mammalian group that was known only from Argentine fossils.
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This page is based on the article Ferugliotherium published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
