Eobaataridae

Eobaataridae is a family of fossil mammal within the order Multituberculata. Remains are known from the Lower Cretaceous of Europe and Asia. These herbivores thus lived during the Mesozoic era, also known as the "age of the dinosaurs". They were among the most derived representatives of the informal suborder "Plagiaulacida".

Eobaatarids
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous 154–100 Ma
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: †Multituberculata
Suborder: †Plagiaulacida
Family: †Eobaataridae
Kielan-Jaworowska et al. 1987
Genera

In this case of one taxon, remains are reasonably well known. This refers to Sinobaatar from the extraordinary Chinese locality of Liaoning. They were close relatives of the Plagiaulacidae, while the second upper molar has similarities to ones known from the informal Paracimexomys group within the more derived suborder, Cimolodonta.

Indobaatar from the Early Jurassic Kota Formation has been suggested to be the earliest known multituberculate, let alone the earliest eobaatarid, and may stretch the eobaatarid-cimolodontan group much earlier than previously thought.[3] However its referral to the family has been considered questionable by other scholars.[4][5]

Fossils of Jeholbaatar kielanae seem to show a small bone from the lower jaw on its way to becoming part of the middle ear.[6]

Etymology

The name "Eobaatar" (from ancient Greek "ἠώς"= dawn and Mongolian "baatar"= hero) means "dawn hero".

Notes
  1. Nao Kusuhashi; Yaoming Hu; Yuanqing Wang; Takeshi Setoguchi; Hiroshige Marsuoka (2010). "New multituberculate mammals from the Lower Cretaceous (Shahai and Fuxin formations), northeastern China". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 30 (5): 1501–1514. doi:10.1080/02724634.2010.501435.
  2. Nao Kusuhashi (2008). "Early Cretaceous multituberculate mammals from the Kuwajima Formation (Tetori Group), central Japan". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 53 (3): 379–390. doi:10.4202/app.2008.0302.
  3. Parmar, Prasad, and Kumar (2013) The first multituberculate mammal from India. Naturwissenschaften
  4. Kusuhashi, Nao; Wang, Yuan-Qing; Jin, Xun (2019-08-23). "A New Eobaatarid Multituberculate (Mammalia) from the Lower Cretaceous Fuxin Formation, Fuxin-Jinzhou Basin, Liaoning, Northeastern China". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. doi:10.1007/s10914-019-09481-w. ISSN 1064-7554.
  5. Alexander Averianov; Alexey Lopatin; Pavel Skutschas; Stepan Ivantsov; Elizaveta Boitsova; Ivan Kuzmin (2017). "An enigmatic multituberculate mammal from the Early Cretaceous of Siberia, Russia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 37 (2): e1293070. doi:10.1080/02724634.2017.1293070.
  6. Haibing Wang; Jin Meng; Yuanqing Wang (2019). "Cretaceous fossil reveals a new pattern in mammalian middle ear evolution". Nature. 576 (7785): 102–105. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1792-0. PMID 31776514.

References
  • Kielan-Jaworowska, Dashzeveg & Trofimov (1987), "Early Cretaceous multituberculates from Mongolia and a comparison with Late Jurassic forms". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 32, p. 3-47.
  • Kielan-Jaworowska, Z.; Hurum, J.H. (2001). "Phylogeny and Systematics of multituberculate mammals". Palaeontology. 44 (3): 389–429. doi:10.1111/1475-4983.00185.
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