Multituberculata is an extinct order of rodent-like mammals with a fossil record spanning over 130 million years. They first appeared in the Middle Jurassic, and reached a peak diversity during the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene. They eventually declined from the mid-Paleocene onwards, disappearing from the known fossil record in the late Eocene. They are the most diverse order of Mesozoic mammals with more than 200 species known, ranging from mouse-sized to beaver-sized. These species occupied a diversity of ecological niches, ranging from burrow-dwelling to squirrel-like arborealism to jerboa-like hoppers. Multituberculates are usually placed as crown mammals outside either of the two main groups of living mammals—Theria, including placentals and marsupials, and Monotremata—but usually as closer to Theria than to monotremes. They are considered to be closely related to Euharamiyida and Gondwanatheria as part of Allotheria.
Lambdopsalis is an extinct multituberculate mammal from the Late Paleocene of China and Mongolia. It is placed within the suborder Cimolodonta and is a member of the superfamily Taeniolabidoidea. Fossil remains have been found in the Late Paleocene Nomogen and Khashat Formations in Nao-mugen and Bayn Ulan of China and Mongolia, dated to 59-55 million years ago from the Thanetian age.. Lambdopsalis bulla is the type species of this genus. The genus and species were named by Chow and Tao Qi in 1978.
Ptilodus is a genus of mammals from the extinct order of Multituberculata, and lived during the Paleocene in North America.
Meniscoessus is a genus of extinct multituberculates from the Upper Cretaceous Period that lived in North America.
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.
Taeniolabidoidea is a group of extinct mammals known whose fossils can be found in North America and Asia. They were the largest members of the extinct order Multituberculata, as well as the largest non-therian mammals. Lambdopsalis even provides direct fossil evidence of mammalian fur in a fairly good state of preservation for a 60-million-year-old animal. Some of these animals were large for their time; Taeniolabis taoensis is the largest known multituberculate and though smaller, Yubaatar is the largest known Mesozoic Asian multituberculate. T. taoensis averaged a body mass of 22.7 kilograms (50 lb).
Catopsalis is a genus of extinct mammal from the Paleocene of North America. This animal was a relatively large member of the extinct order of Multituberculata. Most Multituberculates were much smaller.
Prionessus is a genus of extinct mammal from the Paleocene of what is now Central Asia. It was a member of the extinct order Multituberculata within the suborder Cimolodonta and superfamily Taeniolabidoidea. The genus was named by William Diller Matthew and Walter Granger in 1925, and is based on a single species P.lucifer.
Sphenopsalis is a genus of extinct mammal from the Paleocene of what is now Central Asia. It was a member of the extinct order Multituberculata, and lies within the suborder Cimolodonta and the superfamily Taeniolabidoidea. The genus was named by William Diller Matthew, W. Granger and George Gaylord Simpson in 1928.
Taeniolabis is a genus of extinct multituberculate mammal from the Paleocene of North America.
Neoplagiaulax is a mammal genus from the Paleocene of Europe and North America. In the case of the latter continent, there may possibly be some slightly earlier, Upper Cretaceous material too. It existed in the age immediately following the extinction of the last dinosaurs. This animal was a member of the extinct order Multituberculata, lying within the suborder Cimolodonta and family Neoplagiaulacidae.
Microcosmodon is a mammal genus from the Paleocene of North America. It was a member of the extinct order Multituberculata, and lies within the suborder Cimolodonta and family Microcosmodontidae. The genus Microcosmodon was named by G.L. Jepsen in 1930.
Kogaionidae is a family of fossil mammals within the extinct order Multituberculata. Representatives are known from the Upper Cretaceous and the Paleocene of Europe. Having started as island endemics on Hateg Island during the Upper Cretaceous, where they were in fact the dominant mammal group and diverged into rather unique ecological niches, they expanded across Europe in the Paleocene, where they briefly became a major component of its mammal fauna before their extinction. They are considered to be basal members of Cimolodonta.
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.
The Nacimiento Formation is a sedimentary rock formation found in the San Juan Basin of western New Mexico. It has an age of 61 to 65.7 million years, corresponding to the early and middle Paleocene. The formation has yielded an abundance of fossils from shortly after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event that provide clues to the recovery and diversification of mammals following the extinction event.
Galulatherium is an extinct genus of possibly gondwanathere mammal, from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian-Campanian)-aged Galula Formation of Tanzania. It is known solely from the type specimen TNM 02067 a fragmentary fossil dentary. The short, deep bone is about 19.5 mm (0.77 in) long, but the back part is broken off. It contains a large, forward-inclined incisor with a root that extends deep into the jaw, separated by a diastema (gap) from five cheekteeth. Very little remains of the teeth, but enough to determine that they are hypsodont (high-crowned). The third cheektooth is the largest and the roots of the teeth are curved. First described in 2003, TNM 02067 has been tentatively identified as a sudamericid—an extinct family of high-crowned gondwanathere mammals otherwise known from South America, Madagascar, India, and Antarctica. If truly a gondwanathere, it would be the only African member of the group and may be the oldest. The describers could not exclude other possibilities, such as that the jaw represents some mammalian group known only from younger, Cenozoic times. In 2019 the fossil was CT scanned, which revealed additional details of the specimen.
Kimbetopsalis simmonsae was an ancient mammal which was first discovered in 2015. It lived about 65.5 million years ago, at least a million years after the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct.
Valenopsalis is an extinct mammal from the Paleocene of North America (more specifically, Puercan-aged deposits in Wyoming, Montana and Saskatchewan. Originally referred to the genus Catopsalis, it has more recently been moved to its own genus as the former was understood to be a wastebasket taxon. It is currently considered to be the most basal representative of Taeniolabidoidea.
Lambdopsalidae is a family of extinct multituberculate mammals from the Late Paleocene of Asia. They are part of Taeniolabidoidea, a clade otherwise present in the Early Paleocene of North America. The Lambdopsalids probably evolved from a single radiation that spread into Asia from North America in the mid-Paleocene or earlier. They are represented by the genera Lambdopsalis, Sphenopsalis and Prionessus. This group was first defined in 1978 by Chow and Tao Qi.
Bubodens magnus is an poorly understood, extinct multituberculate mammal from the Upper Cretaceous of South Dakota. It is known only from a single tooth, and has uncertain placement within the suborder Cimolodonta though has been tentatively argued to belong to Taeniolabidoidea. This species is the only known member of the genus Bubodens, and may have been the largest known mammal of the Cretaceous.
