Ernanodon antelios

Taxobox
name = "Ernanodon antelios"
fossil_range = fossil range|60|55Late Paleocene


image_width = 275px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = ?Cimolesta ?Xenarthra
familia = Ernanodontidae
genus = "Ernanodon"
species = "E. antelios"
species_authority = Ting 1979

"Ernanodon antelios" is an extinct placental mammal from the late Paleocene of China. When it was first discovered and examined, it was thought to be a primitive anteater. "E. antelios" and "Eurotamandua" of Eocene Germany helped to support a hypothesis that there was movement between the faunas of South America (the homeland of anteaters and other xenarthrans), and the faunas of Europe and Asia, by way of North America. This was further supported by the alleged European phorusrhacid "Aenigmavis", also of Eocene Germany.The view of "E. antelios" being an anteater has been discarded, and the idea that there was any extensive Paleocene faunal interchange with South America has been rethought due to "Eurotamandua" being now regarded as a scaleless pangolin, and the various European phorusracids being reidentified as being owl-like sophornithids.

"E. antelios"' placement within Xenarthra is further questioned because it lacks the distinctive joints that characterize Xenarthra, the same reason why "Eurotamandua" is no longer regarded as a xenarthran, also. Some experts now suggest that "E. antelios" was actually a cimolestid, a member of a diverse group of possum-like placental mammals possibly related to the order Carnivora and the pangolins.

References

*Agusti, Jordi & Anton, Mauricio. Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids New York: Columbia University Press 2002.
*Horovitz, I. 2003. "The type skeleton of Ernanodon antelios is not a single specimen." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 23 pp. 706-708 [http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1671%2F2255] .
*Genera and species of Paleocene mammals [http://www.paleocene-mammals.de/pal4.htm]
*Hunter, John P. & Janis, Christine M. 2006. "Spiny Norman in the Garden of Eden? Dispersal and early biogeography of Placentalia" Journal of Mammalian Evolution Volume 13 pp. 89-123