Sunnyodon is a genus of tiny, extinct mammal, probably of the Lower Cretaceous. Found in what is now southern England and Denmark, it was a relatively early member of the extinct order of Multituberculata. It is part of the suborder Plagiaulacida and family Paulchoffatiidae.
Gerhardodon is an extinct genus of mammal from the Lower Cretaceous of southern England. It was a member of the also extinct order of Multituberculata, and lived with such dinosaurs as Iguanodon. It lies within the suborder "Plagiaulacida" and family Pinheirodontidae.
Albionbaataridae is a family of small, extinct mammals within the order Multituberculata. Fossil remains are known from the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous of Europe and Asia. These herbivores lived their obscure lives during the Mesozoic, also known as the "age of the dinosaurs." They were among the more derived representatives of the informal suborder "Plagiaulacida". The taxon Albionbaataridae was named by Kielan-Jaworowska Z. and Ensom P.C. in 1994.
Albionbaatar is an extinct mammal from the Lower Cretaceous Lulworth Formation of England. It was a member of the also extinct order Multituberculata and shared the world with the much larger dinosaurs. It is in the suborder "Plagiaulacida", family Albionbaataridae. The genus Albionbaatar was named by Kielan-Jaworowska Z. and Ensom P.C. in 1994 based on a single species.
Morganucodon is an early mammaliaform genus that lived from the Late Triassic to the Middle Jurassic. It first appeared about 205 million years ago. Unlike many other early mammaliaforms, Morganucodon is well represented by abundant and well preserved material. Most of this comes from Glamorgan in Wales, but fossils have also been found in Yunnan Province in China and various parts of Europe and North America. Some closely related animals (Megazostrodon) are known from exquisite fossils from South Africa.
Dorset is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. Covering an area of 2,653 square kilometres (1,024 sq mi); it borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east, and Hampshire to the east. The great variation in its landscape owes much to the underlying geology, which includes an almost unbroken sequence of rocks from 200 to 40 million years ago (Mya) and superficial deposits from 2 Mya to the present. In general, the oldest rocks appear in the far west of the county, with the most recent (Eocene) in the far east. Jurassic rocks also underlie the Blackmore Vale and comprise much of the coastal cliff in the west and south of the county; although younger Cretaceous rocks crown some of the highpoints in the west, they are mainly to be found in the centre and east of the county.
Echinodon is a genus of heterodontosaurid dinosaur that lived during the earliest Cretaceous of southern England and possibly western France in the Berriasian epoch. The first specimens were jaw bones named Echinodon becklesii by Sir Richard Owen in 1861, and since their original description only additional teeth have been discovered. The specific name honours collector Samuel Beckles who discovered the material of Echinodon and many other taxa from across England, while the genus name translates as "prickly tooth" in reference to the dental anatomy of the taxon.
Purbeck Marble is a fossiliferous limestone found in the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula in south-east Dorset, England. It is a variety of Purbeck stone that has been quarried since at least Roman times as a decorative building stone.
The Purbeck Group is an Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous lithostratigraphic group in south-east England. The name is derived from the district known as the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset where the strata are exposed in the cliffs west of Swanage.
Nuthetes is the name given to a genus of theropod dinosaur, likely a dromaeosaurid, known only from fossil teeth and jaw fragments found in rocks of the middle Berriasian age in the Cherty Freshwater Member of the Lulworth Formation in England and also the Angeac-Charente bonebed in France. If it was a dromaeosaurid, Nuthetes would have been a small predator.
Tinodon is an extinct genus of mammal alive 155–140.2 million years ago (Oxfordian-Berriasian) which has been found in the Morrison Formation, the Alcobaça Formation (Portugal) and the Lulworth Formation (England). It is of uncertain affinities, being most recently recovered as closer to therians than eutriconodonts but less so than allotherians. Two species are known: T. bellus and T. micron.
Dorsetochelys is an extinct genus of turtle from the Early Cretaceous of southern England and northwestern Germany.
Pleurosternon is an extinct genus of freshwater pleurosternid turtle from the latest Jurassic to earliest Cretaceous of Europe. Its type species, P. bullockii was described by the paleontologist Richard Owen in 1853. Since then, and throughout the late 19th century, many fossil turtles were incorrectly assigned to this genus, though only two are currently considered valid.
Dorsetodon is an extinct genus of mammal from the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Purbeck Group of Britain. It is represented by isolated lower molars.
Aegialodontia is a clade of extinct early mammals, close to the origin of Boreosphenida. The clade includes some of the oldest known tribosphenic taxa, until the discovery of Tribactonodon from the Berriasian Durlston Formation in 2001, Aegialodon from the Valanginian Wadhurst Clay Formation was the oldest taxon with the tooth form. The Aptian to Albian taxon Kielantherium from Mongolia, formerly a synonym of Aegialodon, is also within the group, sister to Aegialodon within Aegialodontidae.
Spalacotherium is a genus of extinct mammal from the Early Cretaceous of Europe. The type species Spalacotherium tricuspidens was originally named by Richard Owen in 1854, and its material includes maxillary and dentary fragments and many teeth from the Berriasian Lulworth Formation of southern England. Referred species include S. taylori, S. evansae and S. hookeri also from the Lulworth deposits, and S. henkeli from Barremian deposits of Galve, Spain. The Lulworth taxon Peralestes longirostris, named by Owen in 1871, is a junior synonym of the type species S. tricuspidens. Spalacotherium is the namesake taxon of the family Spalacotheriidae, which is an extinct clade within Trechnotheria that may be closely related to the Gondwanan clade Meridiolestida, or united with the family Zhangheotheriidae to form Symmetrodonta.S. evansae is also from the Berriasian aged Angeac-Charente bonebed in western France.
Chunnelodon is a genus of extinct mammal from the Early Cretaceous of Southern England. The type and only species is Chunnelodon alopekodes, represented by two lower molars from the Sunnydown Farm locality of the Lulworth Formation of Dorset. The taxon was described by Paul Ensom and Denise Sigogneau-Russell in 1998, who gave the species name from the translation of the Ancient Greek phrase "sly as a fox", with the generic name honouring the British-French collaboration and the newly inaugurated Channel Tunnel. Chunnelodon is diagnosed by multiple features of the dental anatomy including slightly asymmetrical but aligned roots, sharp cusps, a tall protoconid and metaconid, a small paraconid, and a reduced talonid. While it was only assigned to Cladotheria indeterminate, Chunnelodon was likely closely related to Dryolestoidea, although outside the clade.
Thereuodon is a genus of extinct mammal known from the Early Cretaceous of southern England, Morocco and France. The type species, named by Denise Sigogneau-Russell in 1989 for teeth from the earliest Cretaceous Ksar Metlili Formation of Morocco, is Thereuodon dahmani, while the referred species named by Sigogneau-Russell and Paul Ensom for teeth from the Lulworth Formation of England is Thereuodon taraktes. The two species are separated by a break in the cingulum in T. dahmani, a more obtuse medial crest in T. taraktes, a duller stylocone in T. taraktes, a "c" cuspule in T. dahmani, and a reduced facet A in T. taraktes. The genus Thereuodon is the only taxon in the symmetrodont family Thereuodontidae, which may be closely related to Spalacotheriidae. A tooth referred to T. cf. taraktes is known from the Berriasian aged Angeac-Charente bonebed of France.
Magnimus is a genus of extinct mammal from the Early Cretaceous of Southern England. The type and only species is Magnimus ensomi, described in 1999 by Denise Sigogneau-Russell for molars from the Berriasian Lulworth Formation. The specific name was given to honour Paul Ensom, a discoverer of many teeth from the Purbeck beds, while the generic name is from the Latin words for "large" and "mouse". It is similar to but distinct from Peramus and Abelodon, but its classification cannot be narrowed down beyond indeterminate Zatheria due to its incomplete nature.
Denise Sigogneau-Russell is a French palaeontologist who specialises in mammals from the Mesozoic, particularly from France and the UK. She is currently based at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle.
