Coloniatherium

Coloniatherium is a meridiolestid mammal from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina. The single species, Coloniatherium cilinskii, was a large member of the family Mesungulatidae.

== Taxonomy == Coloniatherium was named in 2009 by Guillermo Rougier and colleagues and assigned to the family Mesungulatidae within the Dryolestoidea. Dryolestoidea is an extinct mammalian group that occurred in North America, Eurasia, and Africa during the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, but survived in South America during the Late Cretaceous and into the Paleocene. The generic name, Coloniatherium, combines the name of the La Colonia Formation, the stratigraphical unit where fossils of the animal were found, and its namesake the Sierra de La Colonia with the Greek therion "beast". The specific name, cilinskii, honors Juan Cilinski, a local rancher who helped with the fieldwork that led to the discovery of Coloniatherium.