Kryptobaatar,[1] also known as Gobibaatar[1] or Tugrigbaatar,[2] is an extinct mammalian genus dating from the Upper Cretaceous Period and identified in Central Asia. This animal was a member of the extinct order of Multituberculata within the suborder Cimolodonta, and was a member of the family Djadochtatheriidae. It lived contemporaneously with some of the dinosaurs. Its skull had a length of perhaps 3 cm.

Kryptobaatar
Temporal range: Campanian-Maastrichtian
Kryptobaatar dashzevegi
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Multituberculata
Family: Djadochtatheriidae
Genus: Kryptobaatar
Species
  • K. dashzevegi Kielan−Jaworowska, 1969
  • K. mandahuensis Smith, Guo & Sun, 2001
Synonyms
  • Gobibaatar Kielan−Jaworowska, 1969
  • Tugrigbaatar Kielan−Jaworowska & Dashzeveg, 1978

The generic name Kryptobaatar is derived from Greek κρυπτός: kruptós, "hidden," (alludes to the ventral position of infraorbital foramen) and Mongolian баатар: baatar, "hero" (alludes to the name of the capital of Mongolia, Ulan Baatar). The specific name dashzevegi is named in honour of Mongolian palaeontologist Demberelyin Dashzeveg. The derivation of its synonym Gobibaatar parvus is Gobi (occurring in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia) and baatar ("a hero", the same as Kryptobaatar).[1] Another synonym Tugrigbaatar saichanensis is a generic name derived from the Toogreeg and Ulan Baatar, and a specific name derived from a Gurvan Saykhan mountain range.[3]

Species identified

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Skull

Biology

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Kryptobaatar was a hopping species, similar to a modern Jerboa.[5] It is thought to have been a carnivory-oriented omnivore.[6][7]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c Kielan-Jaworowska 1969, pp. 35–49.
  2. ^ "Gobibaatar has page priority but was selected as the junior synonym by Kielan-Jaworowska in 1980," (McKenna & Bell, 1997)
  3. ^ Kielan-Jaworowska and Dashzeveg 1978, pp. 115–134.
  4. ^ a b Kielan-Jaworowska et al. 2003, pp. 273–278.
  5. ^ Meng Chen, Gregory Philip Wilson, A multivariate approach to infer locomotor modes in Mesozoic mammals, Article in Paleobiology 41(02) · February 2015 doi:10.1017/pab.2014.14
  6. ^ Wilson GP, Evans AR, Corfe IJ, Smits PD, Fortelius M, Jernvall J. 2012Adaptive radiation of multituberculate mammals before the extinction of dinosaurs. Nature 483, 457-460. (doi:10.1038/nature10880)
  7. ^ Adams, Neil F.; Rayfield, Emily J.; Cox, Philip G.; Cobb, Samuel N.; Corfe, Ian J. (2019). "Functional tests of the competitive exclusion hypothesis for multituberculate extinction". Royal Society Open Science. 6 (3): 181536. Bibcode:2019RSOS....681536A. doi:10.1098/rsos.181536. PMC 6458384. PMID 31032010.

References

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