Morganucodon

Morganucodon
Temporal range: Late Triassic-Middle Jurassic Rhaetian–Bathonian
Scan and reconstruction of the M. oehleri holotype skull
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Clade: Therapsida
Clade: Cynodontia
Clade: Mammaliaformes
Order: Morganucodonta
Family: Morganucodontidae
Genus: Morganucodon
Kühne, 1949
Type species
Morganucodon watsoni
Kühne, 1949
Species
  • M. watsoni (Kühne, 1949)
  • M. oehleri (Rigney, 1963)
  • M. heikuopengensis (Young, 1978)
  • M. peyeri (Clemens, 1980)
  • M. tardus (Butler and Sigogneau-Russell, 2016)

Morganucodon ("Glamorgan tooth") is an early mammaliaform genus that lived from the Late Triassic to the Middle Jurassic. It first appeared about 205 million years ago. Unlike many other early mammaliaforms, Morganucodon is well represented by abundant and well preserved (though in the vast majority of cases disarticulated) material. Most of this comes from Glamorgan in Wales (Morganucodon watsoni), but fossils have also been found in Yunnan Province in China (Morganucodon oehleri) and various parts of Europe and North America. Some closely related animals (Megazostrodon) are known from exquisite fossils from South Africa.[1]

The name comes from a Latinization of Morganuc, the name for South Glamorgan in the Domesday Book, the county of Wales where it was discovered by Walter Georg Kühne,[2] giving the meaning "Glamorgan tooth".

  1. ^ Pages 21–33, 174 in Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, Richard L. Cifelli, and Zhe-Xi Luo, Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs: Origins, Evolution, and Structure, Columbia University Press, New York, 2004 ISBN 0-231-11918-6
  2. ^ Walter G. Kühne, "On a Triconodont tooth of a new pattern from a Fissure-filling in South Glamorgan", Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, volume 119 (1949–1950) pages 345–350