Sparassodonta

Sparassodonta is an extinct group of South American metatherian mammals that included diverse predators and relatives of living marsupials.

Metatheria: A mammal group that includes marsupials and their extinct relatives. Sparassodonts belong within this broader branch of mammals.
Thylacosmilus: An extinct South American sparassodont with exceptionally enlarged, saber-like upper canine teeth. Its conspicuous canines make it the group's best-known specialized predator.
Carnivory: A feeding strategy based primarily on consuming animal tissue. Many sparassodonts were predators whose teeth and jaws reflect meat eating.
Placental mammal: A therian mammal whose fetus develops with a placenta and whose young are usually born comparatively well developed. Placental predators later entered South America and occupied some similar ecological roles.
Marsupial: A metatherian mammal whose young typically complete development attached to a teat, often within a pouch. Living marsupials are the closest familiar comparison for sparassodont relationships.
Borhyaena: An extinct, large-bodied sparassodont from South America, known from Miocene fossils. It represents the robust, terrestrial predatory forms within the group.
Saber-toothed cat: An informal name for extinct felids and other mammals with greatly enlarged blade-like canine teeth. Saber-toothed sparassodonts evolved a similar appearance independently of cats.
Borhyaenoidea: A major sparassodont subgroup that includes many robust South American carnivores. It distinguishes a prominent branch from the broader diversity of the order.
South American land mammal age: A South American Cenozoic sequence of land-mammal ages based on fossil faunas. Its fossil record places sparassodont diversity in a distinctive regional chronology.
Prothylacynus: An extinct South American sparassodont with a relatively generalized carnivorous build. Its anatomy helps illustrate forms less specialized than saber-toothed relatives.

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