Deltatheridium
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Deltatheridium Temporal range: Late Cretaceous |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Metatheria |
| Order: | †Deltatheroida |
| Family: | †Deltatheridiidae |
| Genus: | †Deltatheridium Gregory & Simpson, 1926 |
| Species | |
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Deltatheridium pretrituberculare |
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Deltatheridium (meaning triangle beast or delta beast) is an extinct species of metatherian. It lived in what is now Mongolia during the Upper Cretaceous. It was a basal metatherian, which places it near start of the linage that led to the marsupials, such the kangaroo, koala, and opossum.
It had a length of 15 cm (5.9 in). Apart from preying on insects, its diet was also composed of small reptiles and what it could scavenge from carrion using its sharp canine teeth.
[edit] References
- Parker, Steve. Dinosaurus: the complete guide to dinosaurs. Firefly Books Inc, 2003. Pg. 403
- Rougier, G. W.; Wible, J. R.; Novacek, M. J. (1998). "Implications of Deltatheridium specimens for early marsupial history". Nature 396 (6710): 459. doi:10.1038/24856. PMID 9853752.
[edit] Other Mesozoic mammals from Mongolia
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