Acta Palaeontologica Polonica

Two possibly aquatic triconodont mammals from the Early Cretaceous of Morocco

Denise Sigogneau-Russell

Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 40 (2), 1995: 149-162

Three mammalian molars from the Early Cretaceous of Morocco reveal the existence, at that time, of two new and peculiar species, one of them assigned to the Eotheria Triconodonta (uncertain family), Dyskritodon amazighi gen. et sp. n., the second only tentatively assigned to the Triconodonta, Ichthyoconodon jaworowskorum gen. et sp. n. The former is represented by a last lower molar which three main cusps (a, c, d) decrease regularly in size posteriorly while cusp b is very small and lingually situated, a unique condition for post-Liassic triconodonts. The second taxon (two specimens) is characterized by very narrow and trenchant teeth not intermeshing with adjacent ones, and carrying three subequal main cusps (b, a, c). Such dental morphology suggests that these mammals might have been semi-aquatic and piscivorous.

Key words: molars, Mammalia, Triconodonta, Early Cretaceous, Morocco.


This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (for details please see creativecommons.org), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.