Taeniodonta

Taeniodonta
Temporal range: 70.0–39.7 Ma Late Cretaceous - Middle Eocene[1]
species from family Stylinodontidae
skull of Conoryctes comma
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Clade: Eutheria
Infraclass: Placentalia (?)
Order: †Taeniodonta
Cope, 1876[2]
Families
[see classification]
Synonyms
list of synonyms:
  • Calamodontia (Haeckel, 1895)
  • Ganodonta (Wortman, 1896)
  • Stylinodontia (Haeckel, 1895)
  • Stylinodontidae (Marsh, 1875)
  • Taeniodontidae (Szalay, 1977)

Taeniodonta ("banded teeth") is an extinct order of eutherian mammals, that lived in North America and Europe from the late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) to the middle Eocene.[3][4][5]

Taeniodonts evolved quickly into highly specialized digging animals, and varied greatly in size, from rat-sized to species as large as a bear. Later species developed prominent front teeth and huge claws for digging and rooting. Some genera, like Stylinodon, had ever-growing teeth.[6] The scarcity of taeniodont fossils can be explained by the fact that these animals probably lived in dry or arid climates unconductive to fossilization.

According to 2022 studies of Bertrand, O. C. and Sarah L. Shelley, taeniodonts are identified to be a basal placental mammal.[7][8] Genera Ambilestes, Procerberus and Alveugena are the immediate outgroup to Taeniodonta.[9]

  1. ^ "Taeniodonta". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  2. ^ Cope, E. D. (1876.) "On the Taeniodonta, a new group of Eocene mammals." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Philadelphia 28:39.
  3. ^  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ganodonta". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 454.
  4. ^ Cox, Barry; Savage, R.J.G.; Gardiner, Brian; Dixon, Dougal (1988). "Early rooters and browsers". Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. Macmillan London Limited. ISBN 978-0-333-48699-3.
  5. ^ McKenna, Malcolm C.; Bell, Susan K. (1997). Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-11012-9. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  6. ^ Cox et al. 1988, p. 237
  7. ^ Bertrand, O. C.; Shelley, S. L.; Williamson, T. E.; Wible, J. R.; Chester, S. G. B.; Flynn, J. J.; Holbrook, L. T.; Lyson, T. R.; Meng, J.; Miller, I. M.; Püschel, H. P.; Smith, T.; Spaulding, M.; Tseng, Z. J.; Brusatte, S. L. (2022). "Brawn before brains in placental mammals after the end-Cretaceous extinction". Science. 376 (6588): 80–85. Bibcode:2022Sci...376...80B. doi:10.1126/science.abl5584. hdl:20.500.11820/d7fb8c6e-886e-4c1d-9977-0cd6406fda20. PMID 35357913.
  8. ^ Sarah L. Shelley (2022.) "The phylogeny of Paleocene mammals and the evolution of Placentalia", in "The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 82nd annual meeting"
  9. ^ Rook & Hunter 2013