Proterotheriidae

Proterotheriidae is an extinct family of litoptern ungulates known from the Oligocene-Late Pleistocene of South America. Members of the group were small-medium sized cursorial herbivores with brachydont teeth, with their toes showing progressive reduction, with later members of the group bearing weight on a single large toe similar to living horses.[1]

Proterotheriidae
Temporal range:
Skeleton of Thoatherium
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: †Litopterna
Suborder: †Lopholipterna
Superfamily: †Proterotherioidea
Family: †Proterotheriidae
Ameghino 1887
Synonyms
  • Anisolambdidae Soria, 2001

Description
Skeleton of Diadiaphorus

Two subfamilies and 18 genera of Proterotheriidae are known. All forms were small or medium-sized. Typical is a reduction of the number of toes and brachydont or mesodont teeth. The family is recorded since the late Palaeocene. Various fossils are known from many parts of the South American continent. The diversity decreased in the Miocene to Pliocene and it has been assumed for a long time that they entirely disappeared in the late Pliocene. However, fossils found in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay show that one member of the group, Neolicaphrium recens survived into the Late Pleistocene.[2][3][4]

Better known genera of the family include Diadiaphorus and Thoatherium from the Miocene.[2]

Interpretation of Thoatherium

Taxonomy

Proterotheriidae is traditionally considered to include two subfamilies, Anisolambdinae and Proterotheriinae. Anisolambdinae (also called Anisolambdidae in some studies) was proposed to unite the primitive and earlier forms Anisolambda, Eolicaphrium, Paranisolambda, Protheosodon, Guilielmofloweria, Heteroglyphis, Lambdaconops, Wainka and Xesmodon. However, the phylogenetic analysis of McGrath and colleagues recovered the included genera to neither form their own clade, or to universally represent basal taxa outside the genera of Proterotheriinae per Soria, making Anisolambdinae a polyphyletic group of unrelated organisms.[6]

Proterotheriidae was redefined by McGrath and colleagues in 2019 to be all taxa closer to Tetramerorhinus than Macrauchenia, Tricoelodus or Protolipterna.[5] The cladogram below shows the modified results of their phylogenetic analysis, where incomplete taxa were placed based on morphology. The unrelated genera of the polyphyletic taxon Anisolambdinae or Anisolambdidae is highlighted in pink.[6]

Proterotheriidae
Megadolodinae

Megadolodus

Bounodus

Indaleciidae

Indalecia

Adiantoides

Paramacrauchenia

Anisolambda

Lambdaconus suinus

Lambdaconus inaequifacies

Lambdaconus lacerum

Paranisolambda

Picturotherium

Neodolodus

Protheosodon

Anisolophus floweri

Anisolophus australis

Anisolophus minusculus

Prolicaphrium

Olisanophus

Mesolicaphrium

Diplasiotherium

Villarroelia

Tetramerorhinus fleaglei

Tetramerorhinus prosistens

Tetramerorhinus cingulatum

Tetramerorhinus lucarius

Tetramerorhinus mixtum

Diadiaphorus

Thoatherium

Brachytherium

Thoatheriopsis

Proterotherium

Neobrachytherium ameghinoi

Eoauchenia

Neobrachytherium ullumense

Neobrachytherium morenoi

Neobrachytherium intermedium

Neolicaphrium

Epitherium

Uruguayodon

References
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  1. Carrillo, Juan D.; Suarez, Catalina; Benites-Palomino, Aldo Marcelo; Vanegas, Andrés; Link, Andrés; Rincón, Aldo F.; Luque, Javier; Cooke, Siobhán B.; Tallman, Melissa; Billet, Guillaume (2023-08-31). "New remains of Neotropical bunodont litopterns and the systematics of Megadolodinae (Mammalia: Litopterna)". Geodiversitas. 45 (15). doi:10.5252/geodiversitas2023v45a15. ISSN 1280-9659. S2CID 261638835.
  2. Scherer, C.; Pitana, V.; Ribeiro, A. M. (2009). "Proterotheriidae and Macraucheniidae (Litopterna, Mammalia) from the Pleistocene of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil". Revista Brasileira de Paleontologia. 12 (3): 231–246. doi:10.4072/rbp.2009.3.06.
  3. Ubilla, M.; Perea, D.; Bond, M.; Rinderknecht, A. (2011). "The first cranial remains of the Pleistocene proterotheriid Neolicaphrium Frenguelli, 1921 (Mammalia, Litopterna): a comparative approach". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 31 (1): 193–201. doi:10.1080/02724634.2011.539647. S2CID 84000052.
  4. Gaudioso, P. J.; Gasparini, G. M.; Herbst, R.; Barquez, R. M. (2017). "First record of the Neolicaphrium recens Frenguelli, 1921 (Mammalia, Litopterna) in the Pleistocene of Santiago del Estero Province, Argentina". Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia. 57 (31): 23–29. doi:10.11606/0031-1049.2017.57.03.
  5. McGrath, A.J.; Flynn, J.J.; Wyss, A.R. (2019). "Proterotheriids and macraucheniids (Litopterna: Mammalia) from the Pampa Castillo Fauna, Chile (early Miocene, Santacrucian SALMA) and a new phylogeny of Proterotheriidae". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 18 (9): 1–22. doi:10.1080/14772019.2019.1662500. S2CID 204142828.
  6. Andrew J. McGrath; Federico Anaya; Darin A. Croft (2020). "New proterotheriids (Litopterna, Mammalia) from the middle Miocene of Quebrada Honda, Bolivia, and trends in diversity and body size of proterotheriid and macraucheniid litopterns". Ameghiniana. 57 (2): 159–188. doi:10.5710/AMGH.03.03.2020.3268. S2CID 216236954.
  7. Shockey, Bruce J.; White, Emily; Anaya, Federico; McGrath, Andrew (2023-01-26). "A new proterotheriid (Mammalia, Litopterna) from the Salla Beds of Bolivia (upper Oligocene): phylogeny and litoptern patellar pit knee locks". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 42 (2): e2162409. doi:10.1080/02724634.2022.2162409. ISSN 0272-4634. S2CID 256355550.
  8. Corona, A.; Badín, A.C.; Perea, D.; Ubilla, M.; Schmidt, G.I. (2020). "A new genus and species and additional reports of the South American native ungulates Proterotheriidae (Mammalia, Litopterna) in the Late Miocene of Uruguay". Journal of South American Earth Sciences. 102: 102646. doi:10.1016/j.jsames.2020.102646. S2CID 219425197.
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