| Megaconus Temporal range: Callovian
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| Life restoration of Megaconus | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Subclass: | †Allotheria |
| Genus: | †Megaconus Zhou et al., 2013 |
| Type species | |
| †Megaconus mammaliaformis Zhou et al., 2013
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Megaconus is an extinct genus of allotherian mammal from the Middle Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation of Inner Mongolia, China. The type and only species, Megaconus mammaliaformis was first described in the journal Nature in 2013. Megaconus is thought to have been a herbivore that lived on the ground, having a similar posture to modern-day armadillos and rock hyraxes. Megaconus was in its initial description found to be member of a group called Haramiyida. A phylogenetic analysis published along its description suggested that haramiyidans originated before the appearance of true mammals, but in contrast, the later description of the haramiyidan Arboroharamiya in the same issue of Nature indicated that haramyidans were true mammals.[1] If haramiyidans are not mammals, Megaconus would be one of the most basal ("primitive") mammaliaforms to possess fur, and an indicator that fur evolved in the ancestors of mammals and not the mammals themselves.[2] However, later studies cast doubt on the euharamiyidan intrepretation, instead finding it to be a basal allotherian mammal.[3]
- ^ Zhou, C. F.; Wu, S.; Martin, T.; Luo, Z. X. (2013). "A Jurassic mammaliaform and the earliest mammalian evolutionary adaptations". Nature. 500 (7461): 163–167. Bibcode:2013Natur.500..163Z. doi:10.1038/nature12429. PMID 23925238. S2CID 4346751.
- ^ "Jurassic squirrel's secret is out". The Hindu. August 9, 2013.
- ^ Averianov, Alexander O.; Martin, Thomas; Lopatin, Alexey V.; Schultz, Julia A.; Schellhorn, Rico; Krasnolutskii, Sergei; Skutschas, Pavel; Ivantsov, Stepan (May 2021). Hautier, Lionel (ed.). "Multituberculate mammals from the Middle Jurassic of Western Siberia, Russia, and the origin of Multituberculata". Papers in Palaeontology. 7 (2): 769–787. doi:10.1002/spp2.1317. ISSN 2056-2799. S2CID 219067218.