Donodon is an extinct genus of mammal from the Ksar Metlili Formation of Talssint, Morocco, which has been dated to the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous epochs (Tithonian–Berriasian ages). The type species D. perscriptoris was described in 1991 by the palaeontologist Denise Sigogneau-Russell. A second species, D. minor, was named in 2022.[1] Donodon was a member of Cladotheria, a group that includes therian mammals (marsupials and placentals) and some of their closest relatives. It differed from dryolestids in having upper molars that were not compressed mesiodistally.[2] Some studies have suggested that it was closely related to various South American cladotherians in the clade Meridiolestida,[3] with specific similarities to Mesungulatum, a herbivorous mesungulatid, being noted.[4] On the other hand, a 2022 phylogenetic analysis found it to be only distantly related to meridiolestidans, and instead closer to crown group therians.[1]
| Donodon Temporal range:
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Clade: | Cladotheria |
| Family: | †Donodontidae |
| Genus: | †Donodon Sigogneau-Russell, 1991 |
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References
edit- ^ a b Lasseron, M.; Martin, T.; Allain, R.; Haddoumi, H.; Jalil, N.-E.; Zouhri, S.; Gheerbrant, E. (2022). "An African Radiation of 'Dryolestoidea' (Donodontidae, Cladotheria) and its Significance for Mammalian Evolution" (PDF). Journal of Mammalian Evolution. doi:10.1007/s10914-022-09613-9. S2CID 249324444.
- ^ D. Sigogneau-Russell. 1991. Nouveaux Mammiferes theriens du Cretace inferieur du Maroc. Comptes-Rendus de l'Academis des Sciences du Paris, series II 313:279-285
- ^ Laura Chornogubsky, New remains of the dryolestoid mammal Leonardus cuspidatus from the Los Alamitos Formation (Late Cretaceous, Argentina), Article in Paläontologische Zeitschrift 85(3):343-350 · September 2011 doi:10.1007/s12542-010-0095-4
- ^ Bonaparte, J.F. 2002. New Dryolestida (Theria) from the LateCretaceous of Los Alamitos, Argentina, and paleogeographicalcomments.Neues Jahrbuch fu ̈r Geologie und Pala ̈ontologie,Abhandlungen224(3): 339–371.
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