Ptolemaiida

Taxobox
name = Ptolemaiida


image_caption =
fossil_range = Latest Eocene to ?Miocene
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
infraclassis = Eutheria
superordo = Laurasiatheria
ordo = Cimolesta
unranked_familia = Ptolemaiida
familia = Ptolemaiidae
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision =
*"Ptolemaia" (type genus)
*"Qarunavus"
*"Cleopatrodon"
*"Merialus"
*"Euhookeria"
*"Kelba"

Ptolemaiida is a taxon of wolf-sized mammals presumed to be descended from pantolestid cimolestids that lived in Northern and Eastern Africa during the Paleogene. The oldest fossils are from the latest Eocene strata of the Jebel Qatrani Formation, near the Fayum oasis in Egypt.

Some experts place Ptolemaiida in Afrotheria (as incertae sedis), on the basis of paleobiography, as the taxon was endemic to Paleocene Africa, and because of some similarities in skull anatomical features in common with those in aardvarks.

There have been much confusion about the origins and even identities of the ptolemaiids. The first specimen, a set of isolated molar teeth, of the type species, "Ptolemaia lyonsi", was originally identified as being a primate, as they were flat and nearly identical to those of primates. Later, when the first skull was found, it was then thought to be a monstrous, wolf-sized shrew, as the skull had long canine fangs, and was very gracile. However, recently, there has been reconsideration of the ptolemaiids' diet, and possible behavior, as wear on the teeth suggest it crushed hard or abrasive food, and that the teeth had little or no shearing ability. Even so, some sources still refer to them as being gigantic, carnivorous shrews.

References

* [http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/92/8/3269] "Ptolemaiida, a new order of Mammalia-with description of the cranium of "Ptolemaia grangeri"
* [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1838468] "Additional material of the enigmatic Early Miocene mammal "Kelba" and its relationship to the order Ptolemaiida"