Woodburnodon

Woodburnodon is an extinct genus of microbiotherian marsupial whose fossils have been found on Seymour Island, Antarctica. It lived during the Eocene epoch.

Taxonomy

The genus is represented by single species, Woodburnodon casei, which was described in 2007 from fossils found on the Antarctic Peninsula. Woodburnodon is currently the only formally described species in the family Woodburnodontidae, although fossils of an unidentified Early Eocene woodburnodontids have also been found in Patagonia.

Description

Woodburnodon was the largest known member of the order Microbiotheria. It was at least three or four times larger than the microbiotherid Pachybiotherium, which has been estimated at. This would put the size of Woodburnodon at around.