New Late Cretaceous Mammal From southern Patagonia Discovered, Patagomaia chainko

[Prehistory Resurrection]

Link to paper; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-53156-3

[Halichoeres]

Pity there isn't more of it, but that is definitely an interesting find.

[Papi-Anon]

So is it safe to assume this is a placental (or at least a non-metatherian cousin to placentals)? I know it's been found that placentals were alive in the very late Cretaceous, and while I'm no expert here, the hips' remains seem to lack any sign of the 'shelf' metatherians usually have in their pubis that is the anchor-point for the pouch tissue (unless this was like Thylacine and presumably Thylacosmilus where the shelf was cartilaginous).