Alticonodon

Last updated

Alticonodon
Temporal range: Santonian-Campanian, 84.5–83.5  Ma
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Clade: Eutriconodonta
Family: Triconodontidae
Subfamily: Alticonodontinae
Genus: Alticonodon
Fox, 1969
Species:
A. lindoei
Binomial name
Alticonodon lindoei
Fox, 1969

Alticonodon is a genus of extinct mammal from the Late Cretaceous of North America. It is one of the geologically youngest known eutriconodonts, and is a fairly more specialised animal than earlier representatives of this clade. [1]

Contents

Description

Alticonodon is currently a monotypic genus, represented exclusively by A. lindoei. It is known from the Milk River Formation deposits of the early Campanian of Alberta, Canada. It is known from two specimens: a dentary fragment bearing two molars, and an isolated lower last molar.

Classification

Alticonodon has been consistently recovered as a triconodontid, and more specifically as an alticonodontine, [2] though the latter term may be redundant in relation to the rest of Triconodontidae. [3]

Biology

Compared to earlier eutriconodonts, Alticonodon has molars better specialised for shearing. [1] As eutriconodonts as a group had shearing molars due to their carnivorous habits, [4] it can be inferred that Alticonodon was hypercarnivorous.

This ecological specialisation might have come due to competition with other mammals in the region, such as the various metatherians. [1]

Ecology

The Milk River Formation is a rich fossil environment that covered near-shore and terrestrial deposits. It included a few dinosaur species like Saurornitholestes and Acrotholus , as well as a variety of other vertebrate such as the crocodilian Gilchristosuchus , various turtles and fish.

The mammalian fauna was primarily dominated by metatherians and multituberculates, as usual for Late Cretaceous mammaliafaunas, but a variety of older taxa remained; besides Alticonodon, there was also the symmetrodont Symmetrodontoides , and Potamotelses and picopsids. These were the last non-therian mammals (other than the highly successful multituberculates) in North America, suggesting a relictual element to the region's fauna.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gondwanatheria</span> Extinct group of Mammaliaformes that lived during the Upper Cretaceous through the Miocene

Gondwanatheria is an extinct group of mammaliaforms that lived in parts of Gondwana, including Madagascar, India, South America, Africa and Antarctica during the Upper Cretaceous through the Paleogene. Until recently, they were known only from fragmentary remains. They are generally considered to be closely related to the multituberculates and likely the euharamiyidians, well known from the Northern Hemisphere, with which they form the clade Allotheria.

<i>Repenomamus</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Repenomamus is a genus of opossum- to badger-sized gobiconodontid mammal containing two species, Repenomamus robustus and Repenomamus giganticus. Both species are known from fossils found in China that date to the early Cretaceous period, about 125-123.2 million years ago. R. robustus is one of several Mesozoic mammals for which there is good evidence that it fed on vertebrates, including dinosaurs. Though it is not entirely clear whether or not these animals primarily hunted live dinosaurs or scavenged dead ones, evidence for the former is present in fossilized remains showcasing the results of what was most likely a predation attempt by R. robustus directed at a specimen of the dinosaur Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis. R. giganticus is among the largest mammals known from the Mesozoic era, only surpassed by Patagomaia.

<i>Volaticotherium</i> Extinct family of mammals

Volaticotherium antiquum is an extinct, gliding, insectivorous mammal that lived in Asia during the Jurassic period, around 164 mya. It is the only member of the genus Volaticotherium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volaticotherini</span> Extinct clade of mammals

Volaticotherini is a clade of eutriconodont mammals from the Mesozoic. In addition to the type genus Volaticotherium, it includes the genera Argentoconodon, Ichthyoconodon, and potentially Triconolestes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eutriconodonta</span> Extinct order of mammals

Eutriconodonta is an order of early mammals. Eutriconodonts existed in Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America during the Jurassic and the Cretaceous periods. The order was named by Kermack et al. in 1973 as a replacement name for the paraphyletic Triconodonta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeholodentidae</span> Extinct family of mammals

The family Jeholodentidae is a possible eutriconodont family that was present in China around 125 million years ago during the time of the dinosaurs. There are currently two genera assigned to the family, Yanoconodon and Jeholodens.

Deltatheroida is an extinct group of basal metatherians that were distantly related to modern marsupials. The majority of known members of the group lived in the Cretaceous; one species, Gurbanodelta kara, is known from the late Paleocene (Gashatan) of China. Their fossils are restricted to Central Asia and North America. This order can be defined as all metatherians closer to Deltatheridium than to Marsupialia.

Triconolestes is an extinct genus of Late Jurassic eutriconodont mammal from the Morrison Formation, present in stratigraphic zones 4. Known from only a single molar, it is a small mammal typically considered an amphilestid. However, it has also been compared to Argentoconodon, which has been considered a volaticothere related to gliding mammals such as Volaticotherium and Ichthyoconodon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triconodontidae</span> Extinct family of mammals

Triconodontidae is an extinct family of small, carnivorous mammals belonging to the order Eutriconodonta, endemic to what would become Asia, Europe, North America and probably also Africa and South America during the Jurassic through Cretaceous periods at least from 190–66 mya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gobiconodontidae</span> Extinct family of mammals

Gobiconodontidae is a family of extinct mammals that ranged from the mid-Jurassic to the early Late Cretaceous, though most common during the Early Cretaceous. The Gobiconodontids form a diverse lineage of carnivorous non-therian mammals, and include some of the best preserved Mesozoic mammal specimens.

Several mammals are known from the Mesozoic of Madagascar. The Bathonian Ambondro, known from a piece of jaw with three teeth, is the earliest known mammal with molars showing the modern, tribosphenic pattern that is characteristic of marsupial and placental mammals. Interpretations of its affinities have differed; one proposal places it in a group known as Australosphenida with other Mesozoic tribosphenic mammals from the southern continents (Gondwana) as well as the monotremes, while others favor closer affinities with northern (Laurasian) tribosphenic mammals or specifically with placentals. At least five species are known from the Maastrichtian, including a yet undescribed species known from a nearly complete skeleton that may represent a completely new group of mammals. The gondwanathere Lavanify, known from two teeth, is most closely related to other gondwanatheres found in India and Argentina. Two other teeth may represent another gondwanathere or a different kind of mammal. One molar fragment is one of the few known remains of a multituberculate mammal from Gondwana and another has been interpreted as either a marsupial or a placental.

Juchilestes is an amphidontid mammal genus from the early Cretaceous. It lived in what is now the Beipiao of western Liaoning, eastern China. It is known from the holotype D2607, which consists of three-dimensionally preserved, partial skull with mandibles and some teeth. It was found in 2004 from the Lujiatun Site of the Yixian Formation. It was first named by Chun-Ling Gao, Gregory P. Wilson, Zhe-Xi Luo, A. Murat Maga, Qingjin Meng and Xuri Wang in 2010 and the type species is Juchilestes liaoningensis.

Argentoconodon is an extinct genus of theriimorph mammal from the Cañadón Asfalto Formation of the Cañadón Asfalto Basin in Patagonia. When originally described, it was known only from a single molariform tooth, which possessed a combination of primitive and derived features. The tooth is currently held in the Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio, where it was given the specimen number MPEF-PV 1877. New material described in 2011 show that Argentoconodon was similar to Ichthyoconodon, Jugulator and Volaticotherium within the family Triconodontidae, and possibly also Triconolestes.

<i>Ichthyoconodon</i> Extinct family of mammals

Ichthyoconodon is an extinct genus of eutriconodont mammal from the Lower Cretaceous of Morocco. It is notable for having been found in a unique marine location, and the shape of its teeth suggests an unusual, potentially fish-eating ecological niche. Analysis suggests it is part of a group of gliding mammals that includes Volaticotherium.

Jugulator is an extinct genus of mammals from the Cretaceous of North America. It contains one species, Jugulator amplissimus. A eutriconodont, it is known from the Cedar Mountain Formation, and is both a large sized and possibly ecologically specialised taxon, showcasing the diversity of mammals in the Mesozoic.

<i>Dyskritodon</i> Extinct family of mammals

Dyskritodon is a genus of extinct mammal from the Early Cretaceous of Morocco, and possibly the Early Jurassic of India. Of uncertain affinities, it is tentatively described as a eutriconodont.

Astroconodon is an extinct genus of mammal from the Cretaceous of North America. Part of Eutriconodonta, it was a small sized predator, either a terrestrial insectivore and carnivore, or a semi-aquatic piscivore.

<i>Triconodon</i> Extinct family of mammals

Triconodon is a genus of extinct mammal from the Early Cretaceous of England and France with two known species: T. mordax and T. averianovi. First described in 1859 by Richard Owen, it is the type genus for the order Triconodonta, a group of mammals characterised by their three-cusped (triconodont) molar teeth. Since then, this "simplistic" type of dentition has been understood to be either ancestral for mammals or else to have evolved multiple times, rendering "triconodonts" a paraphyletic or polyphyletic assemblage respectively, but several lineages of "triconodont" mammals do form a natural, monophyletic group, known as Eutriconodonta, of which Triconodon is indeed part of.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plagiaulacoid</span> Mammalian tooth

A plagiaulacoid is a type of blade-like, most often serrated, tooth present in various mammal groups, usually a premolar. Among modern species it is present chiefly on diprotodontian marsupials, which have both the upper and lower first premolars converted into serrated blades. However, various other extinct groups also possessed plagiaulacoids. These would be multituberculates, some "Plesiadapiformes" such as Carpolestes and various metatherians such as Epidolops and various early diprotodontians. In many of these only a lower premolar became converted into a blade, while the upper premolars showed less specialisation.

<i>Asiatherium</i> Extinct family of mammals

Asiatherium is an extinct genus of mammal, probably belonging to Metatheria. It lived during the Late Cretaceous, and its fossilized remains were discovered in Mongolia.

References

  1. 1 2 3 R. C. Fox. 1969. Studies of Late Cretaceous vertebrates. III. A triconodont mammal from Alberta. Canadian Journal of Zoology 47:1253-1256
  2. L. C. Gaetano and G. W. Rougier. 2011. New materials of Argentoconodon fariasorum (Mammaliaformes, Triconodontidae) from the Jurassic of Argentina and its bearing on triconodont phylogeny. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31(4):829-843 [R. Benson/R. Benson]
  3. Thomas Martin, Jesús Marugán-Lobón, Romain Vullo, Hugo Martín-Abad, Zhe-Xi Luo & Angela D. Buscalioni (2015). A Cretaceous eutriconodont and integument evolution in early mammals. Nature 526, 380–384. doi : 10.1038/nature14905
  4. Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, Richard L. Cifelli, Zhe-Xi Luo (2004). "Chapter 7: Eutriconodontans". Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs: origins, evolution, and structure. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 216–248. ISBN   0-231-11918-6.