Lambdopsalis
| Lambdopsalis Temporal range: Upper Paleocene
| |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
| Phylum: | |
| Class: | |
| Order: | |
| Suborder: | |
| Superfamily: | |
| Family: | |
| Genus: | Lambdopsalis
|
| Species: | L. bulla
|
| Binomial name | |
| Lambdopsalis bulla Chow & Qi, 1978
| |
Lambdopsalis bulla is an extinct multituberculate mammal from the Late Paleocene of China. It is placed within the suborder Cimolodonta and is a member of the superfamily Taeniolabidoidea. Fossil remains have been found in Upper Paleocene strata in Nao-mugen and Bayn Ulan of China.
Hair and fur fossilize very infrequently, if at all. This genus of burrowing multituberculate mammals provides one of the earliest unequivocal examples of mammal fur (Lower Cretaceous fossils of Eomaia, Volaticotherium and Castorocauda with the fur preserved still attached are currently the oldest). Indirect evidence suggest that hair first appeared on non-mammalian therapsids (Therapsida), back in the Triassic or even earlier. This is inferred from small hollows on the bone of the snout similar to holes in the skulls of cats which provide space for concentrations of nerves and blood vessels that innervate prominent whiskers (specialized hairs). This adaptation allows cats to use their whiskers as effective tactile sensory organs.
In the same Upper Paleocene strata, exceptionally preserved coprolites, originally excreted by unknown carnivorous animals, were discovered to contain undigested remains, including hair from Lambdopsalis and three other different mammal taxa.[2][3]
References
- ^ Thomas E. Williamson, Stephen L. Brusatte, Ross Secord, Sarah Shelley, A new taeniolabidoid multituberculate (Mammalia) from the middle Puercan of the Nacimiento Formation, New Mexico, and a revision of taeniolabidoid systematics and phylogeny, 5 OCT 2015, doi: 10.1111/zoj.12336
- ^ "Multituberculate and other mammal hair
recovered from Paleogene excreta". Nature. 385: 712–714. 1997. doi:10.1038/385712a0.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|authors=ignored (help); line feed character in|title=at position 39 (help) - ^ Novacek, Michael J. (1997). "Mammalian evolution: An early record bristling with evidence" (PDF). Current Biology. 7: R489–R491. doi:10.1016/s0960-9822(06)00245-4.
- Chow & Qi (1978), "Paleocene mammalian fossils from Nomogen Formation of Inner Mongolia." Vertebrata PalAsiatica 16(2), p. 77-85.
- Kielan-Jaworowska Z. & Hurum J.H. (2001), "Phylogeny and Systematics of multituberculate mammals." Paleontology 44, p. 389-429.
- Much of this information is derived from [1] MESOZOIC MAMMALS; Eucosmodontidae, Microcosmodontidae and Taeniolabidoidea, an Internet directory.