Sudamerica, literally "South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

" in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, is a genus of mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

 from the extinct suborder Gondwanatheria

Gondwanatheria

Gondwanatheria is an extinct group of mammals that lived during the Upper Cretaceous through the Eocene in the Southern Hemisphere, including Antarctica...

 that lived in Patagonia

Patagonia

Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...

, South America during the Paleocene

Paleocene

The Paleocene or Palaeocene, the "early recent", is a geologic epoch that lasted from about . It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era...

, just after the end of the "Age of Dinosaurs

Mesozoic

The Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time...

".

Similar to Gondwanatherium

Gondwanatherium

Gondwanatherium is a genus of mammal from the extinct suborder Gondwanatheria that lived in Patagonia, South America during the "Age of Dinosaurs", specifically the Upper Cretaceous....

, this genus had high-crowned teeth, which are very useful for eating grass

Grass

Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns ...

es. Since there is no evidence of grass in South America until later, they must also have been effective for other types of food.

Classification

The type specimen of Sudamerica ameghinoi was discovered in Punta Peligro, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 in deposits dating to the Lower Paleocene period. In 1999, a near complete lower jaw (dentary) was found.

The genus and species were named by Scillato-Yané and R. Pascual in 1984. The genus is also known by the synonym Sudamericana. The position of gondwanatherians within the class Mammalia is not yet clear.