Astroconodon

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Astroconodon
Temporal range: 112–94 
Ma
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Clade: Eutriconodonta
Family: Triconodontidae
Subfamily:
Alticonodontinae
Genus: Astroconodon
Patterson, 1951
Type species
Astroconodon denisoni
Patterson, 1951
Species
  • A. delicatus
  • A. denisoni
  • A. sp.

Astroconodon is an extinct genus of mammal from the

predator, either a terrestrial insectivore and carnivore, or a semi-aquatic piscivore
.

It is the first Cretaceous eutriconodont found.[1][2]

Description

The type species is A. denisoni. Known from the

distal
ones see a marked increase in crown height.

A second species, A. delicatus, was later found in the Cedar Mountain Formation. Its type locality is Mussentuchit (OMNH V239). It is smaller than A. denisoni by approximately 80%, and it differs from it, and most North American triconodontids, by lacking a lingual cingulid on the lower molars and premolars.[4]

A third species, currently unnamed, is known from the Twin Mountains Formation. Not much has been said about it.[2][4]

Phylogeny

Always identified as a "

eutriconodont, as most closely related to Alticonodon and Corviconodon (these are in turn each other's sister taxa).[5][6]

Biology

Because of its abundance on

fluvial deposits it may have simply been a terrestrial species whose remains were carried over by the waters, though she does cite Goldberg 2000[7] and recognises that there are stratifications of aquatic and terrestrial species to be noted.[2]

Terrestrial or aquatic, Astroconodon, like most eutriconodonts, was almost certainly a predator. Like in most eutriconodonts, its triconodont molars were adapted for shearing, much ike the carnassials of therian carnivores.[2]

Palaeoecology

Astroconodon occurs in several fossil formations, most depicting

multituberculates and therians
.

References

  1. ^ a b c B. Patterson. 1951. Early Cretaceous mammals from northern Texas. American Journal of Science 249:31-46
  2. ^ .
  3. ^ a b Bob H. Slaughter, Astroconodon, the Cretaceous Triconodont, Journal of Mammalogy, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Feb., 1969), pp. 102-107
  4. ^ a b c R. L. Cifelli and S. K. Madsen. 1998. Triconodont mammals from the medial Cretaceous of Utah. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 18(2):403-411
  5. S2CID 4428972
    .
  6. ^ Goldberg, Faunal composition, non-marine vertebrates, of the upper Cedar Mountain Formation (Cretaceous : Albian-Cenomanian), central Utah, Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma, 2000. Includes bibliographical references.