Eurotamandua

Eurotamandua ("european Tamandua") is an extinct genus of mammal from extinct family Eurotamanduidae that lived some 47 million years ago, during the middle Eocene. A single fossil is known, coming from the Messel Pit in southwestern Germany. Eurotamandua was about 90 cm (35 in) long. Most palaeontologists now classify Eurotamandua as a pangolin. When its fossils were first discovered, Eurotamandua was originally thought to be an anteater, as it lacked the characteristic fused-hair scales of other pangolins. Eurotamandua's placement within the pangolins was made primarily because of a lack of the characteristic "xenarthran" joints found in all xenarthrans, including tamanduas. There is still much ambiguity in the taxonomy of all mammals prior to the Eocene, so there is the possibility that Eurotamandua was a primitive xenarthran. However, this is highly unlikely because all known fossil evidence indicates that xenarthrans existed exclusively in South America from the beginning of the Cenozoic era until the formation of the Panama land bridge 3 million years ago, after which they spread to North America (but never to Eurasia or Africa). Another possibility is that Eurotamandua belongs to another groups of mammals which appeared around its time, the Afredentata (probably part of Afrotheria).[1] Eurotamandua is currently thought to be a stem-pangolin, closer to crown pangolins than Palaeanodonta and Euromanis but more basal than Eomanis and Necromanis.[2]