Chronoperates
Chronoperates Temporal range: Late Paleocene, 55 Ma | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Clade: | Holotheria |
Family: | †Chronoperatidae Fox, Youzwyshyn & Krause, 1992 |
Genus: | †Chronoperates Fox, Youzwyshyn & Krause, 1992 |
Type species | |
†Chronoperates paradoxus Fox, Youzwyshyn & Krause, 1992 |
Chronoperates (meaning "time wanderer" in Greek) is an extinct genus of probable mammal whose remains have been found in a late Paleocene deposit in Alberta, Canada. It is represented by the type species Chronoperates paradoxus and known only from a partial left lower jaw.[1] It was first identified in 1992 as a non-mammalian cynodont, implying a ghost lineage of over 100 million years since the previously youngest known record of non-mammalian cynodonts, which at that time was in the Jurassic period (some non-mammalian cynodonts are now known to have persisted until the Early Cretaceous). More recently, Chronoperates has been interpreted as a late-surviving symmetrodont mammal.
References
- ↑ Fox, Richard C.; Youzwyshyn, Gordon P.; Krause, David W. (1992). "Post-Jurassic mammal-like reptile from the Palaeocene". Nature 358 (6383): 233–235. doi:10.1038/358233a0. PMID 1630490.
http://darrennaish.blogspot.com/2006/05/time-wandering-cynodonts-and-docodonts.html
http://www.palaeos.com/Vertebrates/Units/410Cynodontia/410.400.html