Zhelestidae
| Zhelestidae Temporal range: Late Cretaceous[1]
| |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Clade: | Eutheria |
| Family: | †Zhelestidae Nessov (1985) |
| Genera | |
Zhelestidae is a lineage of
Range
The earliest zhelestid remains occur in the
Ecology
Zhelestids are well specialised towards an herbivorous diet, their teeth suited for a lateral chewing mechanism similar to that of modern ungulates. An exception to this might be forms like Oxlestes and Khuduklestes, which are normally interpreted as carnivorous, and perhaps a few forms like Borisodon which may have been insectivorous. Ranging from mouse sized forms to ones comparable to small ungulates in size, zhelestids occupied a massive variety of ecological guilds.
In contrast to their dietary divergence, the few available limb remains suggest that they weren't very specialised locomotion wise, in contrast to some other basal
There is evidence that zhelestids were in direct competition with another clade of Mesozoic herbivorous mammals, the
Phylogeny
Below is a phylogeny from Gheerbrant & Teodori (2021):[8]
References
- ^ "Zhelestidae". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
- ^ L. A. Nessov, J. D. Archibald, and Z. Kielan-Jaworowska. 1998. Ungulate-like mammals from the Late Cretaceous of Uzbekistan and a phylogenetic analysis of Ungulatomorpha. Bulletin of Carnegie Museum of Natural History 34:40-88
- ^ J. R. Wible, G. W. Rougier, M. J. Novacek and R. J. Asher. 2007. Cretaceous eutherians and Laurasian origin for placental mammals near the K/T boundary. Nature 447:1003-1006
- ^ J. DAVID ARCHIBALD and ALEXANDER AVERIANOV, Phylogenetic analysis, taxonomic revision, and dental ontogeny of the Cretaceous Zhelestidae (Mammalia: Eutheria), Version of Record online: 25 JAN 2012 DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00771.x
- ^ Kenneth D. Rose, J. David Archibald, The Rise of Placental Mammals: Origins and Relationships of the Major Extant Clades, JHU Press, 22/02/2005
- ^ Rodolphe Tabuce, Thierry Tortosa, Monique Vianey-Liaud, Géraldine Garcia, Renaud Lebrun, Pascal Godefroit, Yves Dutour, Sévérine Berton, Xavier Valentin and Gilles Cheylan (2013). «New eutherian mammals from the Late Cretaceous of Aix-en-Provence Basin, south-eastern France». Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 169 (3): 653-672. doi:10.1111/zoj.12074.
- ^ Averianov, A.O. and Archibald, J.D. 2013. New material and reinterpretation of the Late Cretaceous eutherian mammal Paranyctoides from Uzbekistan. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 58 (1): 17–23. https://dx.doi.org/10.4202/app.2011.0131
- ^ a b Gheerbrant E. & Teodori D. 2021. — An enigmatic specialized new eutherian mammal from the Late Cretaceous of Western Europe (Northern Pyrenees), in Folie A., Buffetaut E., Bardet N., Houssaye A., Gheerbrant E. & Laurin M. (eds), Palaeobiology and palaeobiogeography of amphibians and reptiles: An homage to Jean-Claude Rage. Comptes Rendus Palevol 20 (13): 207-223. https://doi.org/10.5852/cr-palevol2021v20a13
- ^ Rodolphe Tabuce Thierry Tortosa Monique Vianey‐Liaud Géraldine Garcia Renaud Lebrun Pascal Godefroit Yves Dutour Sévérine Berton Xavier Valentin Gilles Cheylan, New eutherian mammals from the Late Cretaceous of Aix‐en‐Provence Basin, south‐eastern France, 29 October 2013 https://doi.org/10.1111/zoj.12074
- ^ Guillermo W. Rougier; Amir S. Sheth; Barton K. Spurlin; Minjin Bolortsetseg; Michael J. Novacek (2016). "Craniodental anatomy of a new Late Cretaceous multituberculate mammal from Udan Sayr, Mongolia" (PDF). Palaeontologia Polonica. 67: 197–248. doi:10.4202/pp.2016.67_197.
- ^ Wood, D. Joseph (2010). The Extinction of the Multituberculates Outside North America: a Global Approach to Testing the Competition Model (M.S.). The Ohio State University.