Spalacotherium

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Spalacotherium
Temporal range: Berriasian–Barremian
EB1911 Marsupialia - Spalacotherium tricuspidens, Purbeck beds.jpg
Spalacotherium tricuspidens
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Symmetrodonta
Family: Spalacotheriidae
Genus: Spalacotherium
Owen, 1854
Species
  • Spalacotherium tricuspidens
    Owen, 1854 (type)
  • Spalacotherium taylori
    Clemens & Lees, 1971
  • Spalacotherium henkeli
    Krebs, 1985
  • Spalacotherium evansae
    Ensom & Sigogneau-Russell, 2000
  • Spalacotherium hookeri
    Gill, 2004
Synonyms [1]
  • Peralestes longirostrisOwen, 1871

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. [2] [3] [1] 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, [1] or united with the family Zhangheotheriidae to form Symmetrodonta. [4] S. evansae is also from the Berriasian aged Angeac-Charente bonebed in western France. [5]


Spalacotheriidae

Spalacotherium

Akidolestes

Symmetrolestes

Spalacolestinae

Spalacotheroides

Yaverlestes

Heishanlestes

Lactodens

Spalacotheridium

Spalacolestes

Symmetrodontoides

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<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.

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Achyrodon is an extinct genus of mammal from the Berriasian epoch of Early Cretaceous southern England. The taxon was first described by Richard Owen in 1871 for teeth from the Lulworth Formation. The taxon has been considered a synonym of co-existing Amblotherium pusillum, but can be distinguished by differences in the dental anatomy and an overall smaller size. Achyrodon was closely related to co-existing genus Phascolestes and the slightly younger European form Crusafontia, and together they make up the subfamily Kurtodontinae within Dryolestidae, a family of early mammals between modern monotremes and therians with no living descendants.

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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 obsute 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angeac-Charente bonebed</span>

The Angeac-Charentebonebed is a fossil deposit located near Angeac-Charente in western France. It dates to the Berriasian stage of the Early Cretaceous, and is coeval with the Purbeck Group of Southern England. It has amongst the most diverse assemblages of earliest Cretaceous vertebrates known from Europe.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Averianov, A.O.; Martin, T.; Lopatin, A.V. (2013). "A new phylogeny for basal Trechnotheria and Cladotheria and affinities of South American endemic Late Cretaceous mammals". Naturwissenschaften. 100 (4): 311–326. Bibcode:2013NW....100..311A. doi:10.1007/s00114-013-1028-3. PMID   23494201. S2CID   18504005.
  2. Ensom, P.C.; Sigogneau-Russel, D. (2000). "New symmetrodonts (Mammalia, Theria) from the Purbeck Limestone Group, Lower Cretaceous, southern England" (PDF). Cretaceous Research. 21 (6): 767–779. doi:10.1006/cres.2000.0227.
  3. Gill, P. (2004). "A new symmetrodont from the Early Cretaceous of England" (PDF). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 24 (3): 748–752. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2004)024[0748:ANSFTE]2.0.CO;2. S2CID   86736277.
  4. Han, G.; Meng, J. (2016). "A new spalacolestine mammal from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota and implications for the morphology, phylogeny, and palaeobiology of Laurasian 'symmetrodontans'". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 178 (2): 343–380. doi: 10.1111/zoj.12416 .
  5. Ronan Allain, Romain Vullo, Lee Rozada, Jérémy Anquetin, Renaud Bourgeais, et al.. Vertebrate paleobiodiversity of the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Angeac-Charente Lagerstätte (southwestern France): implications for continental faunal turnover at the J/K boundary. Geodiversitas, Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle Paris, In press. ffhal-03264773f