Sunnyodon
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Extinct (fossil)
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| Sunnyodon notleyi Kielan-Jaworowska & Ensom, 1992 |
Sunnyodon is a tiny, extinct mammal, probably of the Lower Cretaceous. It was a relatively early member of the also extinct order of Multituberculata. It lived in obscurity in southern England during the "age of the dinosaurs". It's within the suborder "Plagiaulacida" and family Paulchoffatiidae.
The genus 'Sunnyodon ("Sunny tooth", after Sunnydown Farm) was named by Kielan-Jaworowska Z. and Ensom P.C. in 1992 based on a single species.
Fossil remains of the species Sunnyodon notleyi were found in the Upper Jurassic or Lower Cretaceous-age strata of the Purbeck Formation in Durlston Bay, Dorset, England. This is a tooth-based species. According to P.C. Ensom, this Formation is now considered to be early Lower Cretaceous.
[edit] References
- 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.
- Much of this information has been derived from [1] Multituberculata Cope, 1884.
