Cocatherium information

Cocatherium Temporal range: Early Danian (pre-Tiupampan) ~64 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Infraclass:	Marsupialia
Order:	†?Polydolopimorphia
Genus:	†Cocatherium Goin et al. 2006
Species:	†C. lefipanum
Binomial name
†Cocatherium lefipanum Goin et al. 2006

Cocatherium is an extinct genus of marsupial mammals of uncertain family placement, from the earliest Paleocene (early Danian) of South America, predating the Tiupampan South American land mammal age. The genus was described based on a fossil molar that was found in the Danian part of the Cretaceous-Paleogene Lefipán Formation in the Cañadón Asfalto Basin in north-central Patagonia, Argentina. The type species of the genus is C. lefipanum.^[1]

The mammal, probably belonging to the Polydolopimorphia, is the oldest known representative of marsupials or any therian mammal in the Southern Hemisphere.