Tinodontidae

Last updated

Tinodontidae
Temporal range: Jurassic to Cretaceous, 155–140.2  Ma
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Clade: Theriiformes
Family: Tinodontidae
Marsh, 1887
Genera

Tinodontidae is an extinct family of actively mobile mammals, endemic to what would now be North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. [1] [2]

Taxonomy

Tinodontidae was named by Marsh (1887). It was assigned to Mammalia by Marsh (1887); and to Symmetrodonta by McKenna and Bell (1997). [3] More recently, they have been recovered as more basal to symmetrodonts, though still within the mammalian crown-group. [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Stegosaurus</i> Thyreophoran stegosaurid dinosaur genus from Late Jurassic period

Stegosaurus is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been found in the western United States and in Portugal, where they are found in Kimmeridgian- to early Tithonian-aged strata, dating to between 155 and 145 million years ago. Of the species that have been classified in the upper Morrison Formation of the western US, only three are universally recognized: S. stenops, S. ungulatus and S. sulcatus. The remains of over 80 individual animals of this genus have been found. Stegosaurus would have lived alongside dinosaurs such as Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus, Ceratosaurus and Allosaurus; the latter few may have preyed on it.

<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.

<i>Ctenacodon</i> Extinct genus of rodent-like mammals

Ctenacodon is a genus of extinct mammal that lived in what is now North America during the Upper Jurassic period. It is a member of the family Allodontidae within the order Multituberculata. Ctenacodon, also known as Allodon, was named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1879. At least three species are currently recognized.

Psalodon is an extinct genus of North American mammal that lived during the Upper Jurassic period. It's a member of the family Allodontidae within the order Multituberculata.

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

Plagiaulacidae is a family of fossil mammals within the order Multituberculata. Remains are known from the Upper Jurassic and earliest Cretaceous of North America and Europe. They were among the more derived representatives of the informal suborder of "Plagiaulacida".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eutheria</span> Clade of mammals in the subclass Theria

Eutheria is the clade consisting of all therian mammals that are more closely related to placentals than to marsupials.

Coelurus is a genus of coelurosaurian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period. The name means "hollow tail", referring to its hollow tail vertebrae. Although its name is linked to one of the main divisions of theropods (Coelurosauria), it has historically been poorly understood, and sometimes confused with its better-known contemporary Ornitholestes. Like many dinosaurs studied in the early years of paleontology, it has had a confusing taxonomic history, with several species being named and later transferred to other genera or abandoned. Only one species is currently recognized as valid: the type species, C. fragilis, described by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1879. It is known from one partial skeleton found in the Morrison Formation of Wyoming, United States. It was a small bipedal carnivore with elongate legs.

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

Docodonta is an order of extinct mammaliaforms that lived during the Mesozoic, from the Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. They are distinguished from other early mammaliaforms by their relatively complex molar teeth, from which the order gets its name. Until recently, Docodonta were represented primarily by teeth and jaws found across former Laurasia,. However, recent discoveries in China include some exceptionally well preserved, almost complete body fossils.

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

Docodon was a mammaliaform from the Late Jurassic of western North America. It was the first docodontan cynodont to be named.

<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. If they are early multituberculates, they would be the longest lived mammalian clade of all time. However, a more recent study in November 2015 may dispute 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dryolestida</span> Extinct order of mammals

Dryolestida is an extinct order of mammals, primarily and possibly exclusively known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous. They are considered members of the clade Cladotheria, close to the ancestry of therian mammals. It is also believed that they developed a fully mammalian jaw and also had the three middle ear bones. Most members of the group, as with most Mesozoic mammals, are only known from fragmentary tooth and jaw remains.

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

Dryolestidae is an extinct family of Mesozoic mammals, known from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous of the North Hemisphere. The oldest known member, Anthracolestes, is known from the Middle Jurassic Itat Formation of Western Siberia, but most other representatives are known from the Late Jurassic of North America and the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous of Europe. Most members are only known from isolated teeth and jaw fragments. Like many other groups of early mammals, they are though to have been insectivores. They are generally classifed in Cladotheria, meaning that they are considered to be more closely related to marsupials and placentals than to monotremes. They are placed as part of the broader Dryolestida, which also includes the Paurodontidae, and also sometimes the South American-Antarctic Meridiolestida, which are often considered unrelated cladotherians. Dyolestidae is not based on a phylogenetic definition, but instead on the possession of unequal roots for the molars of the lower jaw. Additionally, the clade is distinguished by hypsodonty in lower molars, and uneven labio-lingual height for the alveolar borders of the dentary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleobiota of the Morrison Formation</span>

The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has a wide assortment of taxa represented in its fossil record, including dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and limestone and is light grey, greenish gray, or red. Most of the fossils occur in the green siltstone beds and lower sandstones, relics of the rivers and floodplains of the Jurassic period.

Asfaltomylos is an extinct genus of the primitive mammal subclass Australosphenida from the Jurassic of Argentina. The type and only species is Asfaltomylos patagonicus, recovered from and named after the Cañadón Asfalto Formation, Cañadón Asfalto Basin of Chubut Province, Patagonia.

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.

Theretairus is a Late Jurassic genus of sphenodont reptile from the Morrison Formation of western North America, present in stratigraphic zones 5 and 6.

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

Triconodontidae is an extinct family of small, carnivorous mammals belonging to the order Eutriconodonta, endemic to what would become Asia, Europe, North America and probably also Africa and South America during the Jurassic through Cretaceous periods at least from 190–70.6 mya.

Comobatrachus is a dubious genus of extinct frog known only from the holotype, YPM 1863, part of the right humerus, found in Reed's Quarry 9 near Como Bluff, Wyoming in the Late Jurassic-aged Morrison Formation. The holotype was commented on but not described by Moodie in 1912, although it was probably discovered alongside the holotype of Eobatrachus, but was not described by Othniel Charles Marsh when he named Eobatrachus in 1887. The type, and only species, C. aenigmatis, was named and described in 1960. It was probably related to the contemporaneous Eobatrachus.

Eobatrachus is a dubious genus of extinct frog known only from the holotype, YPM 1862, part of the right humerus, found in Reed's Quarry 9 near Como Bluff, Wyoming in the Late Jurassic-aged Morrison Formation. The type, and only species, E. agilis, was named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1887 and he initially interpreted it as a mammal, although it was later re-classified as a genus of frog related to Comobatrachus and Eobatrachus is now seen as a dubious amphibian genus, possibly belonging to Anura (frogs) according to Foster (2007).

<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.

References

  1. PaleoBiology Database: Tinodontidae, basic info
  2. "MESOZOIC MAMMALS; Tinodontidae and Spalacotheriidae, an internet directory".
  3. O. C. Marsh. 1887. American Jurassic mammals. The American Journal of Science, series 3 33(196):327-348
  4. S. Bi, Y. Wang, J. Guan, Z. Sheng, and J. Meng. (30 October 2014). "Three new Jurassic euharamiyidan species reinforce early divergence of mammals". Nature. 514 (7524): 579–584. doi:10.1038/nature13718. S2CID   4471574 . Retrieved 13 September 2022.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)