Protypotherium

Name: Protypotherium.
Phonetic: Pro-te-po-fe-re-um.
Named By: Florentino Ameghino‭ ‬-‭ ‬1882.
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Mammalia,‭ ‬Notoungulata,‭ ‬Typotheria,‭ ‬Interatheriidae.
Species: P.‭ ‬antiquum‭ (‬type‭)‬.
Diet: Herbivore/carnivore‭?
Size: 40‭ ‬centimetres long.
Known locations: South America,‭ ‬particularly Argentina.
Time period: Miocene.
Fossil representation: Several individuals.

       Protypotherium might have looked like a long legged rabbit,‭ ‬but it was actually a notoungulate,‭ ‬a group of mammals unrelated to rabbits.‭ ‬The biggest confusion about Protypotherium is regarding its diet since it possesses all forty-four mammalian teeth,‭ ‬yet no real specialisation towards a specific diet.‭ ‬While Protypotherium is usually interpreted as being a browser of vegetation,‭ ‬there is commonplace speculation about how it might have been a scavenger of carrion as well.

Further reading
- Nuevos restos de mamíferos fósiles descubiertos por Carlos Ameghino en el Eoceno inferior de la Patagonia austral. – Especies nuevas, adiciones y correcciones [New remains of fossil mammals discovered by Carlos Ameghino in the lower Eocene of southern Patagonia. – New species, additions, and corrections]. Revista Argentina de Historia Natural 1:289-328. - F. Ameghino - 1891.
- Reconocimiento de la Region Andina de la República Argentina. Apuntes sobre la Geología y la Paleontología de los Territorios del Río Negro y Neuquén (Diciembre de 1895 á Junio de 1896) [Reconaissance of the Andean Region of the Argentine Republic. - Notes on the Geology and Paleontology of the Territories of the Río Negro and Neuquén (December 1895 to June 1896)] 1-56. - S. Roth - 1898.
- Nuevas especies de mamíferos, cretáceos y terciarios de la República Argentina [New species of mammals, Cretaceous and Tertiarty, from the Argentine Republic]. - Anales de la Sociedad Cientifica Argentina 56–58:1-142. - F. Ameghino - 1904.
- Systematic description of three new mammals (Notoungulata and Rodentia) from the Early Miocene Cerro Bandera Formation, Northern Patagonia, Argentina. - Ameghiniana 52(6):585-597. - A. G. Kramarz, M. Bond & M. Arnal - 2015.
- The Interatheriinae notoungulates from the middle Miocene Collón Curá Formation in Argentina. - Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 62(4):845-863. - B. Vera, M. Reguero & L. González-Ruiz - 2017.

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