Borealestes

Borealestes
Temporal range: Middle Jurassic Bathonian
Skeletal diagrams of B. serendipitus (green) and B. cuillinensis (blue) Scale bars = 10 mm
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Clade: Therapsida
Clade: Cynodontia
Clade: Mammaliaformes
Order: Docodonta
Genus: Borealestes
Waldman and Savage, 1972
Type species
Borealestes serendipitus
Waldman and Savage, 1972
Other species
  • B. cuillinensis Panciroli et al. (2021)[1]

Borealestes is a genus of docodontan from the Middle Jurassic of Britain, first discovered on the Isle of Skye near the village of Elgol. It was the earliest mammaliaform from the Mesozoic found and named in Scotland.[2] A second species and was later found in other Middle Jurassic sites in England, but is now shown to be a different genus.[1] A new species, B. cuillinensis was named in 2021, also from Skye.

  1. ^ a b Panciroli, E.; Benson, R. B. J.; Fernandez, V.; Butler, R. J.; Fraser, N. C.; Luo, Z.-X.; Walsh, S. (2021). "New species of mammaliaform and the cranium of Borealestes (Mammaliformes: Docodonta) from the Middle Jurassic of the British Isles". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 192 (4): 1323–1362. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa144.
  2. ^ Waldman, M.; Savage, R. J. G. (1972). "The first Jurassic mammal from Scotland". Journal of the Geological Society. 128 (2): 119–125. Bibcode:1972JGSoc.128..119W. doi:10.1144/gsjgs.128.2.0119. S2CID 128622858.