Ichthyoconodon Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, | |
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Holotype lower right molar seen from four different angles | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | † Eutriconodonta |
Clade: | † Volaticotherini |
Genus: | † Ichthyoconodon Sigogneau-Russell, 1995 |
Species: | †I. jaworowskorum |
Binomial name | |
†Ichthyoconodon jaworowskorum Sigogneau-Russell, 1995 | |
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 . [1]
Ichthyoconodon is only known from two molar teeth from Anoual Syncline sediments of Morocco, in the Ksar Metlili Formation which dates to the Berriasian. These teeth possess characteristics associated with volaticotherian eutriconodontan mammals. The molars are only around 4 millimeters long, a size comparable to the related species Jugulator . They are compressed into blade-like shape, and arranged in a line, with a slight recurve, similar to other animals in this group such as Argentoconodon . [2] [1]
Ichthyoconodon essentially means "fish cone tooth", from the Greek ιχθυς, "fish", κῶνος, "cone", and ὀδών, "tooth". The type species, I. jaworowskorum, was named "in honour of Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska and Zbigniew Jaworowski for their generous hospitality on many occasions". [2]
Ichthyoconodon has been found to be a eutriconodontan mammal, despite there only being two molar teeth. [2] although some authors have been skeptical of this interpretation. [3] Other possibilities for the identity of these teeth have included pterosaur, dinosaur, and shark, but there has been no supporting evidence to date. [4] Phylogenetic analysis favours the interpretation of these teeth as mammalian, and they are similar to the lower teeth of other mammals in Volaticotherini. [5] [4] [1]
Phylogenetic studies find a close relationship with Volaticotherium , Jugulator , Triconolestes and Argentoconodon , within Volaticotheria. [1] [6] [7]
Ichthyoconodon's teeth were found in marine deposits, alongside taxa like hybodontid sharks, ornithocheirid pterosaurs, [8] ray-finned fish and sea turtles, as well as several terrestrial taxa like theropods. [9] Unlike other mammal teeth, including other contemporary teeth such as those of Hahnodon , which show some degree of degradation, Ichthyoconodon teeth are not significantly modified, suggesting that the mammal either died in situ or was only carried over for a short distance under water. [2]
Because the teeth of Ichthyoconodon are rather sharp and convergent in some details to the teeth of piscivorous mammals like otters and seals, some researchers have suggested that it may have fed on fish. There is no evidence for an aquatic lifestyle, other than the location the fossil were found. However there were freshwater semi-aquatic mammals in the Mesozoic, including the Jurassic and Cretaceous docodonts like Castorocauda and Haldanodon , Early Cretaceous monotremes and the Late Cretaceous Didelphodon . Ichthyoconodon and Dyskritodon amazighi are the only Mesozoic mammals so far to have been suggested to have possibly foraged in the sea. Researchers such as Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska pointed out lack of functional comparison between eutriconodont teeth and those of marine mammals. Unlike the teeth of seals and cetaceans, eutriconodont molars occlude, creating a shearing motion like carnassials, and unlike the grasping function of marine mammal molars. [10]
It is possible that Ichthyoconodon may have been a gliding mammal, based on its relationship with the other gliding mammals like Volaticotherium . The presence of Argentoconodon in South America, Volaticotherium in Asia and Ichthyoconodon in North Africa in such a relatively close span of time suggests there may have been a widespread clade of Jurassic-Early Cretaceous gliding triconodonts. [1]
Tribosphenida is a group (infralegion) of mammals that includes the ancestor of Hypomylos, Aegialodontia and Theria. It belongs to the group Zatheria. The current definition of Tribosphenida is more or less synonymous with Boreosphenida.
Jeholodens is an extinct genus of primitive mammal belonging to the order Eutriconodonta, and which lived in present-day China during the Middle Cretaceous about 125 million years ago.
The Australosphenida are a clade of mammals, containing mammals with tribosphenic molars, known from the Jurassic to Mid-Cretaceous of Gondwana. Although they have often been suggested to have acquired tribosphenic molars independently from those of Tribosphenida, this has been disputed. Fossils of australosphenidans have been found from the Jurassic of Madagascar and Argentina, and Cretaceous of Australia and Argentina. Monotremes have also been considered a part of this group in its original definition and in many subsequent studies, but its relationship with other members has been disputed by some scholars.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Morganucodonta is an extinct order of basal Mammaliaformes, a group including crown-group mammals (Mammalia) and their close relatives. Their remains have been found in Southern Africa, Western Europe, North America, India and China. The morganucodontans were probably insectivorous and nocturnal, though like eutriconodonts some species attained large sizes and were carnivorous. Nocturnality is believed to have evolved in the earliest mammals in the Triassic as a specialisation that allowed them to exploit a safer, night-time niche, while most larger predators were likely to have been active during the day.
Trechnotheria is a group of mammals that includes the therians and some fossil mammals from the Mesozoic Era. It includes both the extinct symmetrodonts and the living Cladotheria.
Shuotherium is a fossil mammaliaform known from Middle-Late Jurassic of the Forest Marble Formation of England, and the Shaximiao Formation of Sichuan, China.
Kuehneotherium is an early mammaliaform genus, previously considered a holothere, that lived during the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic Epochs and is characterized by reversed-triangle pattern of molar cusps. Although many fossils have been found, the fossils are limited to teeth, dental fragments, and mandible fragments. The genus includes Kuehneotherium praecursoris and all related species. It was first named and described by Doris M. Kermack, K. A. Kermack, and Frances Mussett in November 1967. The family Kuehneotheriidae and the genus Kuehneotherium were created to house the single species Kuehneotherium praecursoris. Modeling based upon a comparison of the Kuehneotherium jaw with other mammaliaforms indicates it was about the size of a modern-day shrew between 4 and 5.5 g at adulthood.
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.
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.
Yinotheria is a proposed basal subclass clade of crown mammals uniting the Shuotheriidae, an extinct group of mammals from the Jurassic of Eurasia, with Australosphenida, a group of mammals known from the Jurassic to Cretaceous of Gondwana, which possibly include living monotremes. Today, there are only five surviving species of monotremes which live in Australia and New Guinea, consisting of the platypus and four species of echidna. Fossils of yinotheres have been found in Britain, China, Russia, Madagascar and Argentina. Contrary to other known crown mammals, they retained postdentary bones as shown by the presence of a postdentary trough. The extant members (monotremes) developed the mammalian middle ear independently.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.