Sunnyodon

Sunnyodon
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous
Restoration
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Multituberculata
Family: Paulchoffatiidae
Genus: Sunnyodon
Species: S. notleyi
Binomial name
Sunnyodon notleyi
Kielan-Jaworowska & Ensom, 1992

Sunnyodon is a tiny, extinct mammal, probably of the Lower Cretaceous. Found in what is now southern England, it was a relatively early member of the also extinct order of Multituberculata. It is part of the suborder Plagiaulacida and family Paulchoffatiidae.

The genus Sunnyodon (meaning "Sunny tooth", after Sunnydown Farm) was named by Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska and Ensom P.C. in 1992 based on a single specimen.

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.

A tooth from the Danish island of Bornholm was assigned to Sunnyodon in 2004. It is the first fossil of a Mesozoic mammal found in Scandinavia.[1]

References

  1. Lindgren, J.; Rees, J.; Siverson, M.; Cuny, G. (2004). "The first Mesozoic mammal from Scandinavia". GFF 126 (4): 325. doi:10.1080/11035890401264325.

Sources

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