A New Species of Peratherium (Didelphidae; Polyprotodonta): The First African Marsupial

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Abstract
A new didelphid marsupial Genus Peratherium from the Oligocene Jebel Qatrani Formation of Egypt is the first recognized metatherian mammal from Africa. The new species is most closely related to Cuisian P. perrierense and Ludien P. cuvieri of Europe, indicating that ancestors of this new species originated on that continent. Both paleogeographic and paleontologic considerations suggest that the immigration of marsupials into Egypt was accomplished during the late Eocene Tethyan regression, but there is no evidence favoring either a direct trans-Tethyan sweepstakes route or a more overland path via the Asian Middle East. Asia is the only remaining continent with no marsupial record.

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