Pucadelphys

Pucadelphys; Temporal range: Early Paleocene (Tiupampan); ~66–61.7 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
	Fossils from Bolivia
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Genus:	†Pucadelphys; Marshall & De Muizon, 1988
Species:	†P. andinus
Binomial name
	†Pucadelphys andinus; Marshall & De Muizon, 1988

Pucadelphys is an extinct genus of non-marsupial metatherian.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] The genus contains a single species, P. andinus. Fossils of Pucadelphys have been found in the Santa Lucía Formation in Tiupampa in Bolivia.^[5]

Description

Pucadelphys was small and likely to have eaten insects. It had a long tail, although incomplete on the best preserved fossils. It is possible that the tail was longer than (or at least as long as) its body. 17 vertebrae were preserved, and its estimated that there was 5 to 10 additional vertebrae originally. It is regarded as partially arboreal, and partially terrestrial. It may have been social, as more than 30 specimens have been found together.^[6]

Taxonomy

A 2016 phylogenetic analysis recovered Pucadelphys as a member of a metatherian clade including sparassodonts and other South American taxa, but not marsupials (which are instead closer to Cretaceous North American species). The phylogenetic tree from the analysis is shown below.^[7]

	Andinodelphys

	Pucadelphys

Asiatherium

	Iugomortiferum

	Kokopellia

Aenigmadelphys

Anchistodelphys

Glasbiidae	Glasbius

Pediomyidae	Pediomys

Stagodontidae

Pariadens

	Eodelphis

	Didelphodon

Alphadontidae

	Turgidodon

	Alphadon

	Albertatherium

Marsupialia

References

^ Guillermo W. Rougier, John R. Wible and Michael J. Novacek. First Implications of Deltatheridium specimens for early marsupial history, Nature 396, 459-463(3 December 1998)
^ S. Bi, X. Jin, S. Li and T. Du. 2015. A new Cretaceous metatherian mammal from Henan, China. PeerJ 3:e896
^ Guillermo Rougier, New specimen of Deltatheroides cretacicus (Metatheria, Deltatheroida) from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia, BULLETIN OF CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 36(DEC 2004):245-266 · SEPTEMBER 2009
^ Guillermo W. Rougier; Brian M. Davis; Michael J. Novacek (2015). "A deltatheroidan mammal from the Upper Cretaceous Baynshiree Formation, eastern Mongolia". Cretaceous Research. 52, Part A: 167–177. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2014.09.009.
^ Pucadelphys at Fossilworks.org
^ "How South America Made the Marsupials". PBS Eons. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
^ Wilson, G.P.; Ekdale, E.G.; Hoganson, J.W.; Calede, J.J.; Linden, A.V. (2016). "A large carnivorous mammal from the Late Cretaceous and the North American origin of marsupials". Nature Communications. 7: 13734. Bibcode:2016NatCo...713734W. doi:10.1038/ncomms13734. PMC 5155139. PMID 27929063.