Gobiconodon

Gobiconodon
Temporal range: Berriasian–Albian Possible Bathonian record
Gobiconodon ostromi cast of a specimen from Crow Indian Reservation, Montana. At the AMNH.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: †Eutriconodonta (?)
Family: †Gobiconodontidae
Genus: †Gobiconodon
Trofimov, 1978
Species
  • G. bathoniensis? Sigogneau-Russell, 2016
  • G. borissiaki Trofimov, 1978 (type)
  • G. haizhouensis Kusuhashi et al., 2015
  • G. hoburensis (Trofimov, 1978)
  • G. hopsoni Rougier et al., 2001
  • G. luoianus? Yuan et al., 2009
  • G. ostromi Jenkins Jr. & Schaff, 1988
  • G. palaios? Sigogneau-Russell, 2003
  • G. tomidai Kusuhashi et al., 2015
  • G. zofiae Li et al., 2003
Synonyms

Gobiconodon is an extinct genus of carnivorous mammals (or possibly non-mammalian mammaliaforms) belonging to the family Gobiconodontidae. Undisputed records of Gobiconodon are restricted to the Early Cretaceous of Asia and North America, but isolated teeth attributed to the genus have also been described from formations in England and Morocco dating as far back as the Middle Jurassic. Species of Gobiconodon varied considerably in size, with G. ostromi, one of the larger species, being around the size of a modern Virginia opossum. Like other gobiconodontids, it possessed several speciations towards carnivory, such as shearing molariform teeth, large canine-like incisors and powerful jaw and forelimb musculature, indicating that it probably fed on vertebrate prey. Unusually among predatory mammals and other eutriconodonts, the lower canines were vestigial, with the first lower incisor pair having become massive and canine-like. Like the larger Repenomamus there might be some evidence of scavenging.[1]

  1. ^ Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, Richard L. Cifelli, Zhe-Xi Luo (2004). "Chapter 7: Eutriconodontans". Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs: origins, evolution, and structure. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 216–248. ISBN 0-231-11918-6.