A reassessment of Antarctic polydolopid marsupials (Middle Eocene, La Meseta Formation)

Abstract

New polydolopid marsupial specimens have been recovered from the La Meseta Formation, a late early Eocene to probably early Oligocene unit cropping out in the northern third of Seymour (Marambio) Island, at some 100 km off the northern Antarctic Peninsula. Our review of the original materials, as well as the new specimens from the same levels, led us to: 1) revalidate the genus Antarctodolops Woodburne & Zinsmeister 1984, 2) regard Eurydolops seymouriensis Case, Woodburne & Chaney 1988 as a junior synonym of Antarctodolops dailyi Woodburne & Zinsmeister, and 3) recognize a new species of this same genus: A. mesetaense. As previously stated, the polydolopid radiation might be related to the expansion of the Nothofagus flora, as both have the same spatial distribution in southern South America and West Antarctica.