Zhelestidae

Zhelestidae
Temporal range: 99.6–70.6 Ma Late Cretaceous[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Clade: Eutheria
Family: Zhelestidae
Nessov (1985)
Genera

Zhelestidae is a lineage of extinct eutherian mammals. Occurring in the Late Cretaceous from the Turonian to the Maastrichtian, they were an extremely successful group, with representatives present in Europe, Asia, India (and subsequently in Madagascar), Africa and North America, ostensibly rendering them a cosmopolitan clade. They were specialised towards an herbivorous lifestyle and were in fact initially considered stem-ungulates,[2] but the presence of epipubics and "archaic" dental characters render them as non-placental eutherians.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

  1. ^ "Zhelestidae". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ Kenneth D. Rose, J. David Archibald, The Rise of Placental Mammals: Origins and Relationships of the Major Extant Clades, JHU Press, 22/02/2005
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ 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