| Galulatherium | |
|---|---|
| |
| TNM 02067, the holotype of Galulatherium, a partial lower jaw bone with teeth | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Clade: | †Gondwanatheria (?) |
| Genus: | †Galulatherium O' Connor et al., 2019 |
| Species: | †G. jenkinsi
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Galulatherium jenkinsi O' Connor et al., 2019
| |
Galulatherium is an extinct genus of possibly gondwanathere mammal, from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian-Campanian)-aged Galula Formation of Tanzania.[1] It is known solely from the type specimen TNM 02067 (Tanzanian National Museums specimen 02067)[Note 1] a fragmentary fossil dentary (lower jaw). The short, deep bone is about 19.5 mm (0.77 in) long, but the back part is broken off. It contains a large, forward-inclined incisor with a root that extends deep into the jaw, separated by a diastema (gap) from five cheekteeth. Very little remains of the teeth, but enough to determine that they are hypsodont (high-crowned). The third cheektooth is the largest and the roots of the teeth are curved. First described in 2003, TNM 02067 has been tentatively identified as a sudamericid—an extinct family of high-crowned gondwanathere mammals otherwise known from South America, Madagascar, India, and Antarctica. If truly a gondwanathere, it would be the only African member of the group and may be the oldest. The describers could not exclude other possibilities, such as that the jaw represents some mammalian group known only from younger, Cenozoic times (less than 66 million years ago). In 2019 the fossil was CT scanned, which revealed additional details of the specimen.[1]
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