List of prehistoric mammals

Last updated

This is an incomplete list of prehistoric mammals. It does not include extant mammals or recently extinct mammals. For extinct primate species, see: list of fossil primates. [1] [2]

Contents

Mammaliaformes

Adelobasileus Adelobasileus cromptoni.jpg
Adelobasileus

Order †Dinnetheria

Order †Siconodontiformes

Order †Morganucodonta

Megazostrodon Megazostrodon.jpg
Megazostrodon

Order †Docodonta

Middle to Late Jurassic

Order †Kuehneotheria

Order †Eutriconodonta

Jeholodens Jeholodens BW.jpg
Jeholodens
Gobiconodon GobiconodonDB15.jpg
Gobiconodon

Early JurassicLate Cretaceous

Symmetrodonta incertae sedis

Basal Cladotheria

Basal Zatheria

Subclass Yinotheria

Order †Shuotherida

Order †Ausktribosphenida

Order †Henosferida

Order Monotremata

Steropodon Steropodon BW.jpg
Steropodon

Middle CretaceousRecent

Subclass Allotheria

Order †Haramiyida

Order †Multituberculata

Late JurassicEocene

Subclass Theria

Basal Theria

Infraclass †Pantotheria

Order †Spalacotheriida

Order †Meridiolestida

Order †Dryolestida

Order †Amphitheriida

Order †Peramurida

Order †Aegialodontia

Order †Pappotherida

Infraclass Metatheria

Late Cretaceous–Recent

Metatheria incertae sedis

Basal Metatheria

Ameridelphia incertae sedis

Order †Protodelphia

Order †Deltatheroida

Order †Asiadelphia

Order †Alphadontia

Order †Simpsonitheria

Order †Peradectia

Order †Sparassodonta

Order Didelphimorphia

Order Paucituberculata

Ekaltadeta Ekaltadeta ima.jpg
Ekaltadeta
Necrolestes Necrolestes patagonensis.jpg
Necrolestes
Palorchestes Palorchestes BW.jpg
Palorchestes

Order †Polydolopimorphia

Order †Yalkaparidontia

Order Notoryctemorphia

Order Dasyuromorphia

Order Peramelemorphia

Order Microbiotheria

Order Diprotodontia

Diprotodon Diprotodon.jpg
Diprotodon

Infraclass Eutheria

Basal Eutheria

Eutheria incertae sedis

Basal Ungulatomorpha

Order †Asioryctitheria

Order †Didelphodonta

Order †Ptolemaiida

Order †Bibymalagasia

Order Tubulidentata

Order Macroscelidea

Order Afrosoricida

Order Hyracoidea

Oligocene–Recent

Order Sirenia

Eocene–Recent

Order †Embrithopoda

Eocene-Oligocene

Order †Desmostylia

Paleoparadoxia Paleoparadoxia BW.jpg
Paleoparadoxia
Desmostylus Desmostylus 3 NT.jpg
Desmostylus

Order Proboscidea

Woolly mammoth Mammoth mg 2791.jpg
Woolly mammoth
Moeritherium Moeritherium sp.jpg
Moeritherium

EoceneHolocene

Order †Leptictida

Leptictidium Leptictidium auderiense skeleton.JPG
Leptictidium

Order †Cimolesta

Order Eulipotyphla

Late Cretaceous–Recent

Order Dermoptera

Paleocene–Recent

Order Chiroptera

Eocene–Recent

Order Scandentia

Order †Plesiadapiformes

Order Primates

List of fossil primates

Order †Anagalida

Order Lagomorpha

Eocene–Recent

Order Rodentia

Paleocene–Recent

Giant beaver Giant-beaver-fieldmuseum.jpg
Giant beaver

Order †Condylarthra

Arctocyon Arctocyon DB.jpg
Arctocyon

Note: The "condylarths" are considered paraphyletic, i.e. a grouping of early ungulate-like mammals not necessarily closely related.
PaleoceneEocene

Order †Mesonychia

Order †Litopterna

PaleocenePleistocene

Order †Notoungulata

Toxodon Toxodon skeleton in BA.JPG
Toxodon

PaleocenePleistocene

Suborder Notioprogonia
Suborder Toxodontia
Suborder Typotheria
Suborder Hegetotheria

Order †Astrapotheria

EoceneMiocene

Order †Xenungulata

Paleogene

Order †Pyrotheria

EoceneOligocene

Order †Dinocerata

EoceneEocene

Order †Arctostylopida

Order †Creodonta

Paleocene–Late Miocene

Hyaenodon Hyaenodon Heinrich Harder.jpeg
Hyaenodon

Order Carnivora

Paleocene–Recent

  • Genus † Ravenictis Fox & Youzwyshyn 1994 [? Carnivoramorpha]
Suborder Caniformia (dog-like carnivores)
Ekorus Ekorus and Viverra.jpg
Ekorus
Acrophoca Acrophoca BW.jpg
Acrophoca
Dire wolf Canis dirus.jpg
Dire wolf
Amphicyon Amphicyon ingens.JPG
Amphicyon
Suborder Feliformia (cat-like carnivores)
Smilodon populator SmilodonModel.png
Smilodon populator
American lion PantheraLeoAtrox1.jpg
American lion
Ictitherium Ictitherium viverrinum.JPG
Ictitherium

to be sorted

Order Xenarthra (Edentata)

Paleocene–Recent

Genus † Protobradys?Ameghino 1902 [Incertae sedis]

Glyptodon Glyptodon-1.jpg
Glyptodon
Eremotherium Eremotherium.jpg
Eremotherium

Order Pholidota

Eocene–Recent

Infraorder Cetacea

Eocene–Recent

Parvorder Archaeoceti

Suborder Mysticeti

to be sorted

Suborder Odontoceti

Order Perissodactyla

Eocene–Recent

Suborder Hippomorpha
Suborder Ceratomorpha

Order Artiodactyla

Eocene–Recent

Suborder Suina
Suborder Tylopoda
Oxydactylus Large scott oxydactylus.jpg
Oxydactylus
Suborder Ruminantia

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cimolodonta</span> Extinct suborder of mammals

Cimolodonta is a clade of multituberculate mammals that lived from the Cretaceous to the Eocene. They probably lived something of a rodent-like existence until their ecological niche was assumed by true rodents. The more basal multituberculates are found in a different suborder, "Plagiaulacida", a paraphyletic group containing all non cimolodontan multituberculates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plagiaulacida</span> Extinct suborder of mammals

Plagiaulacida is a group of extinct multituberculate mammals. Multituberculates were among the most common mammals of the Mesozoic, "the age of the dinosaurs". Plagiaulacids are a paraphyletic grouping, containing all multituberculates that lie outside of the advanced group Cimolodonta. They ranged from the Middle Jurassic Period to the early Late Cretaceous of the northern hemisphere. During the Cenomanian, they were replaced by the more advanced cimolodontans.

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

Paulchoffatiidae is a family of extinct mammals that lived predominantly during the Upper Jurassic period, though a couple of genera are known from the Early Cretaceous. Fossils have been reported from Europe. Paulchoffatiids were members of the order Multituberculata. They were relatively early representatives and are within the informal suborder of "Plagiaulacida". The family was named by G. Hahn in 1969, and it honors the Portuguese geologist Léon Paul Choffat. Two subfamilies are recognized.

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

Bolodon is a genus of extinct mammal from the Lower Cretaceous of Europe and North America. It was a member of the extinct order of Multituberculata and belongs to the suborder Plagiaulacida and family Plagiaulacidae.

Neoplagiaulacidae is a family of mammal within the extinct order Multituberculata. Fossil remains are known from the Upper Cretaceous through to the latest Eocene/early Oligocene. Representatives have been found in North America, Europe and Asia. They are the last multituberculates known.

Ferugliotherium is a genus of fossil mammals in the family Ferugliotheriidae from the Campanian and/or Maastrichtian period of Argentina. It contains a single species, Ferugliotherium windhauseni, which was first described in 1986. Although originally interpreted on the basis of a single brachydont (low-crowned) molar as a member of Multituberculata, an extinct group of small, rodent-like mammals, it was recognized as related to the hypsodont (high-crowned) Sudamericidae following the discovery of additional material in the early 1990s. After a jaw of the sudamericid Sudamerica was described in 1999, these animals were no longer considered to be multituberculates and a few fossils that were previously considered to be Ferugliotherium were assigned to unspecified multituberculates instead. Since 2005, a relationship between gondwanatheres and multituberculates has again received support. A closely related animal, Trapalcotherium, was described in 2009 on the basis of a single tooth.

Ferugliotheriidae is one of three known families in the order Gondwanatheria, an enigmatic group of extinct mammals. Gondwanatheres have been classified as a group of uncertain affinities or as members of Multituberculata, a major extinct mammalian order. The best-known representative of Ferugliotheriidae is the genus Ferugliotherium from the Late Cretaceous epoch in Argentina. A second genus, Trapalcotherium, is known from a single tooth, a first lower molariform, from a different Late Cretaceous Argentinean locality. Another genus known from a single tooth, Argentodites, was first described as an unrelated multituberculate, but later identified as possibly related to Ferugliotherium. Finally, a single tooth from the Paleogene of Peru, LACM 149371, perhaps a last upper molariform, and a recent specimen from Mexico, may represent related animals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Docodonta</span> Extinct order of mammaliaforms

Docodonta is an order of extinct Mesozoic mammaliaforms. They were among the most common mammaliaforms of their time, persisting from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous across the continent of Laurasia. They are distinguished from other early mammaliaforms by their relatively complex molar teeth. Docodont teeth have been described as "pseudotribosphenic": a cusp on the inner half of the upper molar grinds into a basin on the front half of the lower molar, like a mortar-and-pestle. This is a case of convergent evolution with the tribosphenic teeth of therian mammals. There is much uncertainty for how docodont teeth developed from their simpler ancestors. Their closest relatives may have been certain Triassic "symmetrodonts", namely Woutersia, Delsatia, and Tikitherium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haramiyida</span> Extinct order of mammaliaforms

Haramiyida is a possibly polyphyletic order of mammaliaform cynodonts or mammals of controversial taxonomic affinites. Their teeth, which are by far the most common remains, resemble those of the multituberculates. However, based on Haramiyavia, the jaw is less derived; and at the level of evolution of earlier basal mammals like Morganucodon and Kuehneotherium, with a groove for ear ossicles on the dentary. Some authors have placed them in a clade with Multituberculata dubbed Allotheria within Mammalia. Other studies have disputed this and suggested the Haramiyida were not crown mammals, but were part of an earlier offshoot of mammaliaformes instead. It is also disputed whether the Late Triassic species are closely related to the Jurassic and Cretaceous members belonging to Euharamiyida/Eleutherodontida, as some phylogenetic studies recover the two groups as unrelated, recovering the Triassic haramiyidians as non-mammalian cynodonts, while recovering the Euharamiyida as crown-group mammals closely related to multituberculates.

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.

<i>Woutersia</i> Extinct genus of mammaliaforms

Woutersia was a Triassic genus of 'symmetrodont' and the only representative of the family Woutersiidae. It was originally classified as a kuehneotheriid, but it has been suggested that it may be related to Docodonta. Remains of W. mirabilis and W. butleri have been found in the Gres à Avicula contorta Formation at Saint-Nicolas-de-Port, France, while W. mirabilis has been found in Varangéville, France; remains have been dated to the Late Triassic, 205.6 to 201.6 Ma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trechnotheria</span> Clade of mammals

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 mammal known from Middle-Late Jurassic of the Forest Marble Formation of England, and the Shaximiao Formation of Sichuan, China.

Pantotheria is an abandoned taxon of Mesozoic mammals. This group is now considered an informal "wastebasket" taxon and has been replaced by Dryolestida as well as other groups. It is sometimes treated as an infraclass and older books refer to it as being related to symmetrodonts. One classification makes it an infraclass with a single order, Eupantotheria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paratheria (mammals)</span> Former taxonomic group including xenarthran and similar mammals

Paratheria is an obsolete term for a taxonomic group including the xenarthran mammals and various groups thought to be related to them. It was proposed by Oldfield Thomas in 1887 to set apart the sloths, anteaters, armadillos, and pangolins, usually classified as placentals, from both marsupial and placental mammals, an arrangement that received little support from other workers. When teeth of the extinct gondwanathere mammals were first discovered in Argentina in the 1980s, they were thought to be related to xenarthrans, leading to renewed attention for the hypothesis that xenarthrans are not placentals. However, by the early 1990s, gondwanatheres were shown to be unrelated to xenarthrans, and xenarthrans are still considered to be placentals.

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

Deltatheridiidae is an extinct family of basal carnivorous metatherians that lived in the Cretaceous and were closely related to marsupials. Their fossils are restricted to Central Asia and North America. They mostly disappeared in the KT event, but a ghost lineage, currently represented by Gurbanodelta, survived until the late Paleocene by decreasing in size and becoming insectivorous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yinotheria</span> Subclass of mammals

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.

<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.

References

  1. Mikko's Phylogeny Archive Haaramo, Mikko (2007). "Mammaliaformes – mammals and near-mammals" . Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  2. Paleofile.com (net, info) "Paleofile.com". Archived from the original on 2016-01-11. Retrieved 2015-12-30.. "Taxonomic lists- Mammals". Archived from the original on 11 January 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  3. Bukhsianidze, Maia; Vekua, Abesalom (2006-11-15). "Capra dalii nov. sp. (Caprinae, Bovidae, Mammalia) at the limit of Plio-Pleistocene from Dmanisi (Georgia)". Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg: 159–171 via ResearchGate.