Mylagaulus

Mylagaulus Temporal range: 13.6–5.33  Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Reconstruction of Mylagaulus with nasal horns
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	† Mylagaulidae
Genus:	† Mylagaulus Cope, 1878
Type species
†Mylagaulus sesquipedalis Cope, 1878
Species
M. cambridgensis M. cornusaulax (Czaplewski, 2012) M. elassos M. kinseyi M. sesquipedalis

Mylagaulus is an extinct genus of rodents in the family Mylagaulidae. Mylagaulus lived in the Americas during the middle to late Miocene. ^[1]

Description

Restoration of Mylagaulus (lower left) and other animals of the Mascall assemblage

Similar to the related genus Ceratogaulus , one species of Mylagaulus bore horns on the nasal bone, M. cornusaulax. ^[2] The osteology of the genus suggests it was fossorial, including a robust ulna and a deep ungual phalanx. The skull is wider than it is long, with broad zygomastes, and the cheek teeth are hypsodont. The dental formula of Mylagaulus is 1,0,1,3-01,0,1,3-0. ^[3]

Classification

Mylagaulus is placed within Mylagaulidae, close to Ceratogaulus. Historically, some species of Mylagaulus have been placed within Ceratogaulus and visa vera ^[4] (C. minor has been intermittently placed as M. minor by some authors). ^[2]

References

1. "Mylagaulus". Paleobiology Database . Retrieved 18 April 2021.
2. Czaplewski, Nicholas J. (2012-01-01). "A Mylagaulus (Mammalia, Rodentia) with nasal horns from the Miocene (Clarendonian) of western Oklahoma". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology .
3. Fagan, Sylvia Robinson (1960). Osteology of Mylagaulus Laevis: A Fossorial Rodent from the Upper Miocene of Colorado. University.
4. Calede, Jonathan J. M. Samuels, Joshua X. (2020-09-01). "A new species of Ceratogaulus from Nebraska and the evolution of nasal horns in Mylagaulidae (Mammalia, Rodentia, Aplodontioidea)". Journal of Systematic Paleontology .