Title: A NEW "MIDDLE" CRETACEOUS ZALAMBDALESTID MAMMAL, FROM A NEW LOCALITY IN JILIN PROVINCE, NORTHEASTERN CHINA
Abstract: Fossil specimens from a new Cretaceous locality near Gongzhuling City in Jilin Province, China, include two incomplete mammalian dentaries which represent a new genus and species referable to the eutherian family Zalambdalestidae. The locality is in basin-margin outcrops of the Quantou Formation, which is widely spread in the subsurface of Songliao Basin and which has been assigned ages ranging from the Aptian to the Cenomanian stages of the Cretaceous; it seems unlikely that the Quantou Formation could be younger than Cenomanian. Both dentaries possess an enlarged, procumbent first incisor combined with an interesting mosaic of both plesiomorphic and derived dental characters compared to taxa such as Kulbeckia kulbecke. For example, the new Gongzhuling specimens appear to show five premolars (including an almost fully molariform ultimate premolar) combined with only three incisors and a low but single-rooted canine. The trigonids on p5 and m1 are relatively open and non-compressed. This locality is likely to emerge as an important source of new information on middle Cretaceous vertebrates as additional mammalian, dinosaurian, and other specimens are described from it in the near future.
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 12
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