Kayentatherium
Kayentatherium Temporal range:
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Skull of K. wellesi | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Synapsida |
Clade: | Therapsida
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Clade: | Cynodontia
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Family: | †Tritylodontidae |
Genus: | †Kayentatherium Kermack, 1982 |
Type species | |
†Kayentatherium wellesi Kermack, 1982
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Synonyms | |
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Kayentatherium is an extinct
Kayentatherium means "Kayenta Beast", and is named for the geological formation in which it was found, the Kayenta Formation. Kayentatherium is known from several specimens.[1][2] The specific name honors paleontologist Samuel Welles, who worked with the University of California Museum of Paleontology in much of the pioneering work on the paleontology of the Kayenta Formation.[1]
History
The first tritylodontid material found in the Kayenta Formation were collected in the 1950s, and further material was collected in 1977 and 1982 by a team led by
Description
It was about a meter long, the skull was over 20 centimetres (7.9 in) in length.[1] It was a robust and stocky animal with a large head and stout backbone.[2] Some researchers think it might have been semi-aquatic, with adaptations formerly thought to indicate digging habits now interpreted as specialisation towards limb-powered swimming.[3] Slight flattening and flaring of the tail vertebrae also suggest specialisms for a semi-aquatic ecology.[4] If this was the case, it would be one of the earliest examples of semi-aquatic specialism in mammaliamorphs in the mammal fossil record.
Reproduction
A find in 2000 of Kayentatherium wellesi from the Kayenta formation of Arizona was examined by
See also
References
- ^ a b c Kermack, D. 1982. A new tritylodont from the Kayenta Formation of Arizona. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 76. 1-17.
- ^ a b c Sues, Hans-Dieter & F. A. Jenkins. 2006. The Postcranial Skeleton of Kayentatherium Wellesi from the Lower Jurassic Kayenta Formation of Arizona and the Phylogenetic Significance of Postcranial Features in Tritylodontid Cynodonts in: Carrano, Matthew T., Gaudin, T. J., Blob, R. W. and Wible, J. R., Amniote Paleobiology: Perspectives on the Evolution of Mammals, Birds, and Reptiles: The University of Chicago Press. pp. 114-152.
- ^ Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan, Forerunners of Mammals: Radiation • Histology • Biology, Indiana University Press, 18/11/2011
- ^ Hoffman E, and Rowe TB. 2017 Postcranial anatomy of Kayentatherium wellesi: swimming adaptations in a mammaliamorph from the Early Jurassic. Abstract from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Conference.
- PMID 31645742.
- PMID 30158701.