Biology:Sunnyodon

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Short description: Genus of mammals

Sunnyodon
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous Berriasian
Sunnyodon.jpg
Restoration
Scientific classification edit
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Multituberculata
Family: Paulchoffatiidae
Subfamily: Paulchoffatiinae
Genus: Sunnyodon
Species:
S. notleyi
Binomial name
Sunnyodon notleyi
Kielan-Jaworowska & Ensom, 1992

Sunnyodon is a genus of tiny, extinct mammal, probably of the Lower Cretaceous. Found in what is now southern England and Denmark , it was a relatively early member of the extinct order of Multituberculata. It is part of the suborder Plagiaulacida and family Paulchoffatiidae.

The genus Sunnyodon (meaning "Sunny tooth", after Sunnydown Farm) was named by Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska and Ensom P.C. in 1992 based on a single specimen.

Fossil remains of the species Sunnyodon notleyi Lower Cretaceous-age strata of the Lulworth Formation in Durlston Bay, Dorset, England and the Rabekke Formation in Denmark . This is a tooth-based species.

A tooth from the Danish island of Bornholm was assigned to Sunnyodon in 2004. It is the first fossil of a Mesozoic mammal found in Scandinavia.[1] A tooth has also been assigned to Sunnyodon from the Berriasian aged Angeac-Charente bonebed in France.[2]

References

  1. Lindgren, J.; Rees, J.; Siverson, M.; Cuny, G. (2004). "The first Mesozoic mammal from Scandinavia". GFF 126 (4): 325. doi:10.1080/11035890401264325. 
  2. Ronan Allain, Romain Vullo, Lee Rozada, Jérémy Anquetin, Renaud Bourgeais, et al.. Vertebrate paleobiodiversity of the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Angeac-Charente Lagerstätte (southwestern France): implications for continental faunal turnover at the J/K boundary. Geodiversitas, Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle Paris, In press. ffhal-03264773f

Sources

  • Kielan-Jaworowska & Ensom (1992), "Multituberculate Mammals from the Upper Jurassic Purbeck Limestone Formation of southern England", Paleontology, 35, p. 95-126.
  • Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. & Hurum, J.H. (2001), "Phylogeny and Systematics of multituberculate mammals", Paleontology 44, p. 389-429.

Wikidata ☰ Q3977036 entry