Ferugliotherium - Description

Description

Specimens from the Los Alamitos Formation assigned to Ferugliotherium
Specimen Organ Currently identified as Ferugliotherium? Length (mm) Width (mm) Height (mm)
MACN Pv-RN 20 Right mf2 Yes (holotype) 1.70 1.70
MACN Pv-RN 174 Left mf1 Yes (holotype of Vucetichia gracilis) 2.20 1.60
MACN Pv-RN 175 Right mf1 Yes 2.10 1.40
MACN Pv-RN 248 Left MF1 Yes 2.50 1.70
MACN Pv-RN 249 dP2/dP3? Possibly 1.50 0.70
MACN Pv-RN 250 dP2/dP3? Possibly
MACN Pv-RN 251 dp1/dp2/dp3? Possibly 0.85 0.50
MACN Pv-RN 252 Lower premolar? Not even certainly mammalian
MACN Pv-RN 253 Right mf1 Yes 1.50
MACN Pv-RN 701A Left i1 Yes 1.30 2.40
MACN Pv-RN 701B Left i1 Yes
MACN Pv-RN 701C Right i1 Yes
MACN Pv-RN 702A I2 Yes 1.10 1.50
MACN Pv-RN 702B I2 Yes
MACN Pv-RN 702C I2 Yes 0.90 1.20
MACN Pv-RN 702D I2 Yes
MACN Pv-RN 970 (or 254) Right i1 No (referred to Gondwanatherium) ~40 (broken) 3.1 6.3
MACN Pv-RN 975 Dentary fragment with p4 Possibly 4.8 (p4) 0.9 (p4)
MLP 88-III-28-1 Left mf1 Yes 2.2 1.5

Ferugliotherium is known from isolated teeth, the assignment of some of which is controversial. The material from the Los Alamitos Formation, which is mostly in the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia (MACN) in Buenos Aires, with one tooth in the Museo de La Plata (MLP) in La Plata, Argentina, has been thoroughly described; while there are additional Ferugliotherium fossils from the La Colonia Formation, they have not been described in detail. Although the fragmentary nature of the known fossils of Ferugliotherium makes it impossible to determine its dental formula with certainty, Gurovich suggested that it had one incisor (possibly two in the upper jaw), no canines, one or two premolars, and two molars on each side of the lower and upper jaws. However, on the basis of comparisons with Sudamerica, which is known to have had four lower molariforms (molar-like teeth, either premolars or molars) in its lower jaw, Pascual and Ortiz-Jaureguizar suggested in 2007 that Ferugliotherium may also have had four lower molars.

Ferugliotherium was much smaller than the sudamericids Gondwanatherium and Sudamerica, and its body mass is estimated to have been about 70 g (2.5 oz). Unlike the hypsodont (high-crowned) sudamericids, Ferugliotherium has brachydont (low-crowned) molariform teeth that are supported by at least two roots, not a single massive root. The direction of wear on the teeth indicates that Ferugliotherium, Gondwanatherium, and Sudamerica all had palinal jaw movement (i.e., the lower jaw moved backwards during the power stroke of chewing)—a feature otherwise only seen in multituberculates among mammals.

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