Ernanodon antelios

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Ernanodon antelios
Fossil range: Late Paleocene

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	?Cimolesta ?Xenarthra
Family:	Ernanodontidae
Genus:	Ernanodon
Species:	E. antelios 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.

[edit] 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 [1].
Genera and species of Paleocene mammals [2]
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