Editing Lavanify (section)

{{short description|Mammalian genus from the late Cretaceous}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}
{{Use shortened footnotes|date=May 2025}}
{{speciesbox
| fossil_range = [[Late Cretaceous]] (?[[Maastrichtian]])
| genus        = Lavanify
| parent_authority    = [[David W. Krause|Krause]] et al., 1997
| species      = miolaka
| authority    = [[David W. Krause|Krause]] et al., 1997
}}

'''''Lavanify''''' is a mammalian genus from the [[late Cretaceous]] (probably [[Maastrichtian]], about 71 to 66 million years ago) of [[Madagascar]]. The only species, '''''L.&nbsp;miolaka''''', is known from two isolated teeth, one of which is damaged. The teeth were collected in 1995–1996 and described in 1997. The animal is classified as a member of [[Gondwanatheria]], an enigmatic extinct group with unclear [[phylogeny|phylogenetic]] relationships, and within Gondwanatheria as a member of the family [[Sudamericidae]]. ''Lavanify'' is most closely related to the Indian ''[[Bharattherium]]''; the South American ''[[Sudamerica]]'' and ''[[Gondwanatherium]]'' are more distantly related. Gondwanatheres probably ate hard plant material.

''Lavanify'' had high-[[crown (tooth)|crowned]], curved teeth. One of the two teeth is 11.2&nbsp;mm high and shows a deep furrow and, is centered laterally in the crown, a V-shaped area that consists of [[dentine]]. The other, damaged, tooth is 9.8&nbsp;mm high and has at least one deep cavity (infundibulum). Characters shared by the teeth of ''Lavanify'' and ''Bharattherium'' include the presence of an infundibulum and a furrow; they both also have large, continuous bands of matrix (unbundled [[hydroxyapatite]] crystals) between the prisms (bundles of hydroxyapatite crystals) of the [[tooth enamel|enamel]], and [[perikymata]]—wave-like ridges and grooves in the enamel surface.