Herpetotherium

Herpetotherium is an extinct genus of metatherian mammal.

Herpetotherium fugax
Restoration

Herpetotherium
Temporal range: Early Eocene – Early Miocene
H. huntii
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Family: †Herpetotheriidae
Genus: †Herpetotherium
Cope, 1873
Type species
†Herpetotherium fugax
Other species
  • †H. huntii
  • †H. knighti
  • †H. merriami
  • †H. tabrumi
  • †H. valens
  • †H. youngi

Fossils have been found in California, Oregon, Texas, Florida, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, and Saskatchewan.[1] The oldest species, H. knighti, is dated to around 50.3 mya,[2] and the most recent, an unnamed species, may be as recent as 15.97 mya.[1] A morphological analysis of marsupials and basal metatherians conducted in 2007 found Herpetotherium to be the sister group to extant marsupials.[3]

Species
  • H. fugax (syn. Didelphys pygmaea, H. scalare, H. tricuspis, Peratherium fugax) (type)
  • H. huntii
  • H. knighti (syn. Centracodon delicatus, Entomacodon minutus, Peratherium morrisi)
  • H. merriami
  • H. valens (syn. Peratherium donahoei)
  • H. youngi (syn. Peratherium spindleri)

References
  1. "Taxonomic occurrences of Herpetotherium recorded in the Paleobiology Database". Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  2. "Taxonomic occurrences of Herpetotherium knighti recorded in the Paleobiology Database". Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  3. Sánchez-Villagra, Marcelo; Ladevèze, Sandrine; Horovitz, Inés; Argot, Christine; Hooker, Jeremy J.; Macrini, Thomas E.; Martin, Thomas; Moore-Fay, Scott; de Muizon, Christian; Schmelzle, Thomas; Asher, Robert J. (2007). "Exceptionally preserved North American Paleogene metatherians: adaptations and discovery of a major gap in the opossum fossil record". Biology Letters. 3 (3): 318–322. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2007.0090. PMC 2390683. PMID 17426007.


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