| Mayulestes Temporal range: Early Paleocene (Tiupampan),
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|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | †Sparassodonta |
| Family: | †Mayulestidae |
| Genus: | †Mayulestes de Muizon 1994 |
| Species: | †M. ferox
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Mayulestes ferox de Muizon 19941
| |
Mayulestes (Quechua: mayu river, + Greek: lestes, thief) is an extinct genus of carnivorous metatherian that lived in what is now Tiupampa, Bolivia in the Early Palaeocene. It shared its habitat with fellow sparassodont Pucadelphys, and a microbiotherid marsupial, Khasia.2
Palaeobiology
Mayulestes ferox was much more adapted for arboreal locomotion than its fellow metatherians of the Tiupampa fauna, Pucadelphys and Andinodelphys. This was likely an adaptation for avoiding terrestrial predators such as sebecosuchian crocodylomorphs.3
References
References
- de Muizon, Christian. (1994). A new carnivorous marsupial from the Palaeocene of Bolivia and the problem of marsupial monophyly. Nature. 370. 208-211. https://doi.org/10.1038/370208a0
- "How South America Made the Marsupials". PBS Eons.
- Argot, Christine (April 2004). "Evolution of South American mammalian predators (Borhyaenoidea): anatomical and palaeobiological implications". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 140 (4): 487–521. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2004.00110.x. ISSN 1096-3642. Retrieved 10 May 2026 – via Oxford Academic.