Multituberculata

Multituberculates
Skeleton of Catopsbaatar
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Subclass: †Allotheria
Order: †Multituberculata
Cope, 1884
Suborders

Multituberculata (commonly known as multituberculates, named for the multiple tubercles of their teeth) is an extinct order of rodent-like mammals with a fossil record spanning over 130 million years.[citation needed] They first appeared in the Middle Jurassic, and reached a peak diversity during the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene. They eventually declined from the mid-Paleocene onwards, disappearing from the known fossil record in the late Eocene.[1] They are the most diverse order of Mesozoic mammals with more than 200 species known, ranging from mouse-sized to beaver-sized. These species occupied a diversity of ecological niches, ranging from burrow-dwelling to squirrel-like arborealism to jerboa-like hoppers.[2][3] Multituberculates are usually placed as crown mammals outside either of the two main groups of living mammals—Theria, including placentals and marsupials, and Monotremata[4]—but usually as closer to Theria than to monotremes.[5][6] They are considered to be closely related to Euharamiyida and Gondwanatheria as part of Allotheria.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Krause 1986 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Weil, Anne (June 1997). "Introduction to Multituberculates: The 'Lost Tribe' of Mammals". Berkeley: UCMP.
  3. ^ Chen, Meng; Philip Wilson, Gregory (2015). "A multivariate approach to infer locomotor modes in Mesozoic mammals". Paleobiology. 41 (2): 280–312. Bibcode:2015Pbio...41..280C. doi:10.1017/pab.2014.14. S2CID 86087687.
  4. ^ Agustí-Antón 2002, pp 3-4
  5. ^ Benton, Michael J. Vertebrate Palaeontology (2004), p. 300
  6. ^ Carrano, Matthew T., and Richard W. Blob, Timothy J. Gaudin, and John R. Wible (2006). Amniote Paleobiology: Perspectives on the Evolution of Mammals, Birds, and Reptiles, p. 358.