Ferugliotheriidae

Ferugliotheriidae is one of two known families in the order Gondwanatheria, an enigmatic group of extinct mammals. Gondwanatheres have been classified as a group of uncertain affinities or as members of Multituberculata, a major extinct mammalian order. The best-known representative of Ferugliotheriidae is the genus Ferugliotherium from the Late Cretaceous epoch in Argentina. A second genus, Trapalcotherium, is known from a single tooth, a first lower molariform (molar-like tooth), from a different Late Cretaceous Argentinean locality. Another genus known from a single tooth (in this case, a fourth lower premolar), Argentodites, was first described as an unrelated multituberculate, but later identified as possibly related to Ferugliotherium. Finally, a single tooth from the Paleogene of Peru, LACM 149371, perhaps a last upper molariform, may represent a related animal.

Ferugliotheriids are known from isolated, low-crowned (brachydont) teeth and possibly a fragment of a lower jaw. Ferugliotherium is estimated to have weighed 70 g (2.5 oz). The incisors are long and procumbent and contain a band of enamel on only part of the tooth. The jaw fragment contains a long tooth socket for the incisor and bears a bladelike fourth lower premolar, resembling those of multituberculates. The premolar of Argentodites is similar. Two upper premolars also resemble multituberculate teeth, but whether these premolars are referable to Ferugliotheriidae is controversial. Molariforms are rectangular and brachydont and consist of longitudinal rows of cusps, connected by transverse crests and separated by transverse furrows. Lower molariforms have two cusp rows, and the single known putative upper molariform has three. Low-crowned and bladelike teeth as seen in ferugliotheriids may have been evolutionary precursors of the high-crowned (hypsodont) teeth of the other gondwanathere family, Sudamericidae.

Most ferugliotheriids come from the Late Cretaceous epoch (Campanian–Maastrichtian ages, 84–66 million years ago, or mya) of Argentina, where they may have lived in a marshy or seashore environment. They coexisted with mammals such as dryolestoids and a variety of other animals, including dinosaurs. Ferugliotheriids may have been herbivores or omnivores.