Maastrichtidelphys

<i>Maastrichtidelphys</i>

Maastrichtidelphys

Extinct genus of mammals

Quick Facts Scientific classification, Binomial name ...

Maastrichtidelphys is a Late Cretaceous genus of metatherian (marsupial lineage) mammal from the Netherlands in Europe.[1] The genus contains a single species, M. meurismeti. It is known from an extremely small right upper molar, and analysis of it suggests that Maastrichtidelphys is most closely related to the North American herpetotheriid marsupial, Nortedelphys, which is Lancian in age.

Maastrichtidelphys belongs to a group of mammals with their origins in North America, the Herpetotheriidae. The presence of Maastrichtidelphys in Europe in the Late Cretaceous shows there was a high-latitude North Atlantic dispersal route between North America and Europe for marsupials, which suggests they spread across Europe at least 10 million years earlier than previously thought.[1]

References

  1. [1]
    Martin, J.E., Case, J.A., Jagt, J.W., Schulp, A.S. and Mulder, E.W., 2005. A new European marsupial indicates a Late Cretaceous high-latitude transatlantic dispersal route. Journal of Mammalian Evolution, 12(3-4), pp.495-511.


Stub icon

This article about a Cretaceous mammal is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Maastrichtidelphys, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.