This is a list of the native mammal species recorded in Argentina. As of January 2020, the list contains 402 mammal species from
Argentina, of which one is extinct, seven are critically endangered, seventeen are endangered, sixteen are vulnerable, and thirty are near threatened.[n 1]
The following tags are used to highlight each species' conservation status as assessed by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature; those on the left are used here, those in the second column in some other articles:
Didelphimorphia is the order of common opossums of the
Western Hemisphere. Opossums probably diverged from the basic
South Americanmarsupials in the late
Cretaceous or early
Paleocene. They are small to medium-sized marsupials, about the size of a large house
cat, with a long snout and
prehensile tail.
The monito del monte is the only extant member of its family and the only surviving member of an ancient order, Microbiotheria. It appears to be more closely related to
Australian marsupials than to
other Neotropic marsupials; this is a reflection of the South American origin of all Australasian marsupials.[1]
Armadillos are small mammals with a bony armored shell. There are 21 extant species in the Americas, 19 of which are only found in South America, where they originated. Their much larger relatives, the
pampatheres and
glyptodonts, once lived in North and South America but became extinct following the appearance of humans.
The order Pilosa is extant only in the Americas and includes the
anteaters,
sloths, and
tamanduas. Their ancestral home is South America. Numerous
ground sloths, some of which reached the size of elephants, were once present in both North and South America, as well as
on the Antilles, but all went extinct following the arrival of humans.
Rodents make up the largest order of mammals, with over 40 percent of mammalian species. They have two
incisors in the upper and lower jaw which grow continually and must be kept short by gnawing. Most rodents are small though the
capybara can weigh up to 45 kg (100 lb).
The lagomorphs comprise two families,
Leporidae (
hares and
rabbits), and Ochotonidae (
pikas). Though they can resemble
rodents, and were classified as a
superfamily in that order until the early 20th century, they have since been considered a separate order. They differ from rodents in a number of physical characteristics, such as having four incisors in the upper jaw rather than two.
The bats' most distinguishing feature is that their forelimbs are developed as wings, making them the only mammals capable of flight. Bat species account for about 20% of all mammals.
The odd-toed ungulates are browsing and
grazing mammals. They are usually large to very large, and have relatively simple stomachs and a large middle toe. South America once had a great diversity of
ungulates of native origin, but these dwindled after the
interchange with North America, and disappeared entirely following the arrival of humans. Sequencing of
collagen from fossils of one recently extinct species each of
notoungulates and
litopterns has indicated that these orders comprise a
sister group to the perissodactyls.[13]
The weight of even-toed
ungulates is borne about equally by the third and fourth toes, rather than mostly or entirely by the third as in
perissodactyls. There are about 220 noncetacean artiodactyl species, including many that are of great economic importance to humans.
The infraorder Cetacea includes
whales,
dolphins and
porpoises. They are the mammals most fully
adapted to aquatic life with a spindle-shaped nearly hairless body, protected by a thick layer of blubber, and forelimbs and tail modified to provide propulsion underwater. Their closest extant relatives are the
hippos, which are artiodactyls, from which cetaceans descended; cetaceans are thus also artiodactyls.
^ This list is derived from the
IUCN Red List which lists species of mammals and includes those mammals that have recently been classified as extinct (since 1500 AD). The taxonomy and naming of the individual species is based on those used in existing Wikipedia articles as of 21 May 2007 and supplemented by the common names and taxonomy from the IUCN, Smithsonian Institution, or University of Michigan where no Wikipedia article was available. The list was partially updated in February 2020.
^DPIPWE (2011) Pest Risk Assessment: Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus). Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment. Hobart, Tasmania.