Deccanolestes

Deccanolestes
Temporal range: Maastrichtian–Paleocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Infraclass:
Eutheria
Genus:
Deccanolestes

Prasad & Sahni, 1988
Species
  • D. hislopi Prasad & Sahni, 1988 (type)
  • D. robustus Prasad, Jaeger, Sahni, Gheerbrandt & Khajuria, 1994
  • D. narmadensis Prasad, Verma, Gheerbrant, Goswami, Khosla, Parmar, & A. Sahni, 2010

Deccanolestes is a scansorial, basal Euarchontan from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) and Paleocene Intertrappean Beds of Andhra Pradesh, India. It may be closely related to Sahnitherium. Deccanolestes has been referred to Palaeoryctidae in the past, but recent evidence has shown that it is either the most basal Euarchontan,[1] as the earliest known Adapisoriculid,[2] or as a stem-afrotherian.[3]

  1. ^ Boyer, Doug M.; Prasad, Guntupalli V. R.; Krause, David W.; Godinot, Marc; Goswami, Anjali; Verma, Omkar; Flynn, John J. (2010). "New postcrania of Deccanolestes from the Late Cretaceous of India and their bearing on the evolutionary and biogeographic history of euarchontan mammals". Naturwissenschaften. 97 (4): 365–77. Bibcode:2010NW.....97..365B. doi:10.1007/s00114-010-0648-0. PMID 20130827. S2CID 12188926.
  2. ^ Smith, Thierry; Bast, Eric; Sigé, Bernard (2010). "Euarchontan affinity of Paleocene Afro-European adapisoriculid mammals and their origin in the late Cretaceous Deccan Traps of India". Naturwissenschaften. 97 (4): 417–22. Bibcode:2010NW.....97..417S. doi:10.1007/s00114-010-0651-5. PMID 20174778. S2CID 11529170.
  3. ^ Erik R. Seiffert, The Oldest and Youngest Records of Afrosoricid Placentals from the Fayum Depression of Northern Egypt