New Oligocene Ptolemaiidae (Mammalia: ?Pantolesta) from the Jebel Qatrani Formation, Fayum Depression, Egypt

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Abstract
A new species of Ptolemaia and two new species of a new genus, Cleopatrodon, are added to the scanty record of the exotic African Oligocene mammalian family, the Ptolemaiidae. Current evidence suggests the presence of at least two lineages (Ptolemaia and Cleopatrodon-Qarunavus) within the family during the Oligocene in Egypt. To the extent that this is correct, these lineages were at first divergent, then convergent, in certain aspects of their lower molar anatomy. The origin of the Ptolemaiidae, although almost certainly African, is obscure; they were considered to be in some way related to the Pantolestidae by many earlier workers and are retained provisionally in the suborder Pantolesta on dental characters shared with generalized members of that group. Although most of these might well be symplesiomorphous, they might betray as well a common though unknown origin with pantolestan mammals.