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Mysterious Ptolemaia: now a miniaturized Sinopa in the LRT

Thursday, July 2, 2026 11:43

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Early Oligocene Ptolemaia is an engimatic placental mammal
from the Fayum of Eqypt apparently lacking lower incisors and having fewer teeth than the larger Sinopa (Fig 1) from the preceding Early to Middle Eocene of North America and Asia.

Figure 1. Sinopa compared to Ptolemaia to scale. Both appear to lack incisors, although both retain alveoli for incisors in the premaxilla. Fewer teeth in the smaller taxon suggest a juvenile or miniaturized status. Apparently both tabulars (light red) were taphonomically knocked off of Ptolemaia, or only grew laterally upon maturity, or were a product of neotony. The zygomatic arch on Ptolemaia is imagined because the jugal and squamosal were lost during taphonomy, as was the retroarticular process.

Ptolemaia was odd enough to erect a new order
according to Simons and Bown 1995. “The origin of the Ptolemaiida is obscure, and debated” according to Wikipedia. Hyaenodontids, shrews and pangolins have been proposed as relatives. “the teeth suggest that it crushed hard or abrasive food, and that the teeth had little or no shearing ability.”

The identity of the lower anterior alveoli was also up for grabs. inistially.
Originally workers wondered were those incisors or canines?

If canines (as scored here)
that would make it a closer match to Sinopa, as Ptolemaia is in all other regards.

Phylogenetic miniaturization
Although Ptolemaia appears to be a juvenile Sinopa based on tooth number, they are not coeval. The smaller taxon is later than the larger earlier taxon. So Ptolemaia may be an adult affected by neoteny, the precocious appearance of sexual maturity at an earlier and earlier age and stage.

Figure 2. Hyopsodus as originally reconstructed (below) and as reconstructed here above in two views. This former condylarth now nests with dogs.

Hyopsodus
the ‘engimatic’ Early Eocene ‘tube sheep’ also currently nests with these taxa in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2340 taxa). A long spinal column is a trait shared by Sinopa (Fig 3).

Figure 3. Sinopa grangeri skeleton, skull and closeups of the manus and pes.

This appears to be a novel hypothesis of interrelationships.
If not please provide a citation so I can promote it here.

PS The LRT is up-to-date today.

References
Kampouridis, P et al (4 co-authors) 2023. “Dental eruption and adult dentition of the enigmatic ptolemaiid Qarunavus meyeri from the Oligocene of the Fayum Depression (Egypt) revealed by micro-computed tomography clarifies its phylogenetic position”. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 199 (4): 1078–1091.
Osborn HF 1908. New fossil mammals from the Fayum Oligocene, Egypt. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 24: 265–272.
Simons EL and Bown TM 1995. Ptolemaiida, a new order of Mammalia–with description of the cranium of Ptolemaia grangeri. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 92 (8): 3269–73.

wiki/Ptolemaiida
wiki/Ptolemaia
wiki/Hyopsodus
wiki/Sinopa

Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2026/07/02/mysterious-ptolemaia-now-a-miniaturized-sinopa-in-the-lrt/

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