Pseudotherium

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Pseudotherium
Temporal range:
Ma
3D rendering of the holotype skull
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Clade: Therapsida
Clade: Cynodontia
Clade: Prozostrodontia
Genus: Pseudotherium
Wallace et al., 2019
Species:
P. argentinus
Binomial name
Pseudotherium argentinus
Wallace et al., 2019

Pseudotherium ("false beast") is an extinct genus of prozostrodontian cynodonts from the Late Triassic of Argentina. It contains one species, P. argentinus, which was first described in 2019 from remains found in the La Peña Member of the Ischigualasto Formation in the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin.[1]

Discovery and naming

The holotype and only known specimen, PVSJ 882, was discovered in 2006 by Argentine palaeontologist Ricardo N. Martínez during an expedition to the Ischigualasto Formation. It consists of a partial skull lacking the lower jaw, quadrate bones and most of the zygomatic arches and premaxillae.

The generic name Pseudotherium is derived from the Greek words pseudo, meaning "false", and therios, meaning "beast". The specific name argentinus references the country of Argentina where it was found.[1]

Description

Holotype skull

Pseudotherium would have been a relatively large cynodont; excluding its missing premaxillae, the holotype skull is 69 millimetres (2.7 in) in length. Running along the top of the skull was a prominent

mammaliamorphs, on the other hand, lacked any trace of these bones.[1]

The snout of Pseudotherium is long and slender. As the premaxillae are incomplete, no

mammaliaforms, the roots were incompletely divided.[1]

Classification

The following cladogram is from the phylogenetic analysis of Wallace et al., 2019. Pseudotherium was placed within Mammaliamorpha as the sister taxon of

Probainognathia

A 2023 paper by Stefanello et al., describing a nearly complete new skull of Prozostrodon, recovered Pseudotherium as the sister taxon of that genus, with the two genera forming the clade

Prozostrodontidae at the base of Prozostrodontia. A cladogram from that study is shown below:[2]

References