Argentodites

Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, who described and named the fossil in 2007, regarded it as a multituberculate, perhaps a cimolodontan—and thus, a member of a mostly Laurasian (northern) group and an immigrant to Argentina from North America—on the basis of the shape of the tooth and features of its enamel.

In 2009, however, two teams argued that Argentodites may in fact be close to or identical with Ferugliotherium, a member of the small Gondwanan (southern) group Gondwanatheria; although their relationships are disputed, gondwanatheres may themselves be multituberculates.

Argentodites is known from a single premolar tooth, MPEF 604, in the collections of the Museo Paleontológico "Egidio Feruglio" in Trelew, Argentina.

The generic name, Argentodites, combines "Argentina" with the Ancient Greek hodites "traveler", in reference to the animal's presumed migration from North America to Argentina, and the specific name, coloniensis, refers to the La Colonia Formation.

[4] Long ridges extend from the cusps diagonally toward the front on both the lingual and labial (outer) sides of the tooth.

[8] In a 2009 paper on the affinities of Gondwanatheria, Yamila Gurovich and Robin Beck argue that the difference in shape between MACN-RN 975 and Argentodites is due to extensive wear on the former specimen; they write that the parts of the p4 that are not worn are virtually identical to the equivalents parts of the Argentodites p4.

[9] In the same year, Guillermo Rougier and colleagues also suggested ferugliotherian affinities of Argentodites in a paper on the mammals of the Allen Formation, another Cretaceous rock unit of Argentina.

[11] Gondwanatheres are a small and enigmatic group from the late Cretaceous and Paleogene of South America, Antarctica, Madagascar, India, and perhaps Tanzania.