''Bolodon'' ("lump tooth" from Ancient Greek βῶλος (bôlos), “clod, lump” + ὀδών (odṓn), "tooth") is a genus of extinct mammal from the Lower

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

and North America. It was a member of the extinct order of

Multituberculata Multituberculata (commonly known as multituberculates, named for the multiple tubercles of their teeth) is an extinct order of rodent-like mammals with a fossil record spanning over 130 million years. They first appeared in the Middle Jurassic, a ...

and belongs to the suborder

Plagiaulacida Plagiaulacida is a group of extinct multituberculate mammals. Multituberculates were among the most common mammals of the Mesozoic, "the age of the dinosaurs". Plagiaulacids are a paraphyletic grouping, containing all multituberculates that lie ...

and family

Plagiaulacidae Plagiaulacidae is a family of fossil mammals within the order Multituberculata. Remains are known from the Upper Jurassic and earliest Cretaceous of North America and Europe. They were among the more derived representatives of the informal subo ...

Type species

The type species, ''Bolodon crassidens'', is known from fossils of the Lower Cretaceous of England from the

Lulworth Formation The Lulworth Formation is a geologic formation in England. It dates from the late Tithonian to the mid Berriasian. It is a subunit of the Purbeck Group. In Dorset, it consists of three members, which are in ascending order, the Mupe Member, the ...

in Durlston Bay,

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

. The species ''Bolodon elongatus'' is possibly not referable to this genus: "?new genus to be erected for ''Bolodon elongatus''," (Kielan-Jaworowska & Hurum, 2001, p. 414). Fossils of the species ''Bolodon minor'' (type species of the ''Plioprion'') have been found in the Lower Cretaceous of Durlston Bay, Dorset. ''Plioprion'' (Cope, 1884) is probably synonymous with ''Bolodon''. The species ''Bolodon osborni'' was named by Simpson G.G. in 1928. Fossils have been found in the Berriasian (Lower Cretaceous) of Durlston Bay, Dorset. Cifelli et al. (2014) erected ''B. hydei'' for remains from the Berriasian-Valanginian age Chilson Member of the

Lakota Formation The Lakota Formation is a sequence of rocks of early Cretaceous ( Berriasian to Barremian) age from Western North America. Located in South Dakota, the name of the formation is derived from the Lakota Native American tribe. There are two units ...

of South Dakota.Cifelli, R.L., Davis, B.M., and Sames, B. 2014. Earliest Cretaceous mammals from the western United States. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 59 (1): 31–52.

References

* Kielan-Jaworowska Z & Hurum JH (2001), ''Phylogeny and Systematics of multituberculate mammals''. Paleontology 44, p. 389-429. * This information has been derived fro

''MESOZOIC MAMMALS; Plagiaulacidae, Albionbaataridae, Eobaataridae & Arginbaataridae, an Internet directory''. * Simpson (1928), ''A catalogue of the Mesozoic Mammalia in the Geological Department of the British Museum''. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), London, 215pp. Early Cretaceous mammals of Europe Early Cretaceous mammals of North America Multituberculates Taxa named by Richard Owen Fossil taxa described in 1871 Prehistoric mammal genera {{cretaceous-mammal-stub