Spanish Journal of Palaeontology 36 (2), 2021 https://doi.org/10.7203/sjp.36.2.20974 Sociedad Española de Paleontología ISSN 2255-0550 / eISSN 2660-9568 OPEN ACCESS RESEARCH PAPER Taxonomy and affi nities of african cenozoic metatherians Taxonomía y afi nidades de los metaterios cenozoicos africanos Vicente D. CRESPO & Francisco J. GOIN Abstract: The record of extinct African metatherians (Mammalia, Theria) is scanty, restricted Received: 20 January 2021 in time (Eocene–Miocene), and its taxonomy is still subject of debate. A review of all African Accepted: 24 May 2021 metatherians, or alleged metatherians, known up to now, led us to the recognition of only Published online: XXX three taxa referable to this group: (1) Kasserinotherium tunisiense (Peradectoidea?), from the early Eocene of Tunisia; (2) Peratherium africanum (Herpetotheriidae), from the early Oligocene of Egypt and Oman, and (3) an indeterminate Herpetotheriidae? from the early Corresponding author: Miocene of Uganda. Herpetotheriids probably reached Afro-Arabia from Europe in one Vicente D. Crespo or more dispersal waves since the early Oligocene. Kasserinotherium, on the contrary,
[email protected] suggests an earlier (Paleocene) arrival from South America, judging from its alleged affi nities with South American and Australian taxa. Such a migration event (probably, Keywords: through a fi lter corridor such as the Rio Grande Rise-Walvis Ridge system in the South Mammalia Atlantic) may also explain the enigmatic presence of polydolopimorphian metatherians in Metatheria the Cenozoic of central Anatolia (Turkey). A more radical hypothesis is that all European (Eurasian?) Marsupialiformes have an ultimate origin in South America, from where they Africa dispersed via Africa by the Paleocene–earliest Eocene.