Gondwanatheria is an extinct group of mammaliaforms that lived in parts of Gondwana, including Madagascar, India, South America, Africa, and Antarctica during the Upper Cretaceous through the Miocene (and possibly much earlier, if Allostaffia is a member of this group). Until recently, they were known only from fragmentary remains. They are generally considered to be closely related to the multituberculates and likely the euharamiyidians, well known from the Northern Hemisphere, with which they form the clade Allotheria.

Classification

thumb|Life reconstruction of Vintana sertichi. Postcranial reconstruction is hypothetical.|left

For several decades the affinities of the group were not clear, being first interpreted as early xenarthrans, or "toothless" mammals similar to the modern anteater. A variety of studies have placed them as allotheres related to multituberculates, possibly even true multituberculates, closer to cimolodonts than "plagiaulacidans" are. However, a more recent study recovered them as nested among haramiyidans, rendering them as non-mammalian cynodonts. A more recently described specimen has since recovered them as allotheres closely related to multituberculates, but this was soon after followed by a study recovering them as part of Euharamiyida, which itself was placed inside crown-group Mammalia.

There are three known families within Gondwanatheria. The family Sudamericidae was named by Scillato-Yané and Pascual in 1984, and includes the vast majority of named taxa. The family Ferugliotheriidae was named by José Bonaparte in 1986, and includes one genus, Ferugliotherium, and possibly a few other forms like Trapalcotherium from the Late Cretaceous of South America. Ferugliotheriidae are considered the most basal gondawanatherians, and are sometimes recovered outside the group.

The youngest gondwanatherians are known from the Eocene of South America and Antarctica. The Eocene genus Groeberia and Miocene genus Patagonia, two mammals from South America with unusual tooth morphologies usually considered metatherians, were considered by one paper to be gondwanatheres.

The fully described animal, now named Adalatherium hui, is a comparatively large sized mammal, compared in size to a large cat. It has more erect limbs than other allotheres. <small>McKenna 1971</small> [Gondwanatheroidea <small>Krause & Bonaparte 1993</small>]

  • ?†Allostaffia