''Borealestes'' was a genus of docodontan from the

Middle Jurassic The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 163.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively rare, but geological formations co ...

of Britain, first discovered on the

Isle of Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o Skye), is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated ...

near the village of

Elgol Elgol ( gd, Ealaghol) is a village on the shores of Loch Scavaig towards the end of the Strathaird peninsula in the Isle of Skye, in the Scottish Highlands. Name According to tradition, its name derives from a battle fought with five ships by Ae ...

. It was the earliest mammaliaform from the

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...

found and named in Scotland. A second species and was later found in other Middle Jurassic sites in England, but is now shown to be a different genus. A new species, ''B. cuillinensis'' was named in 2021, also from Skye.

Etymology

The genus name is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Boreas and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

Boreal Boreal may refer to: Climatology and geography *Boreal (age), the first climatic phase of the Blytt-Sernander sequence of northern Europe, during the Holocene epoch *Boreal climate, a climate characterized by long winters and short, cool to mild ...

, meaning ''northern'', the

listís meaning ''brigand'' or ''rogue''. The specific name of ''B. serendipitus'' comes from the noun ''serendipity'', relating to making a happy and unexpected discovery by accident. The species name ''B. cuillinensis'' comes from the

Cuillin The Cuillin ( gd, An Cuiltheann) is a range of mostly jagged rocky mountains on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The main Cuillin ridge is also called the Black Cuillin to distinguish it from the Red Cuillin ('), which lie to the east of Glen Sliga ...

mountains on Skye, which are near the discovery site, and the cusps of the teeth resemble the peaks of the mountains.

Discovery

The first fossil of ''Borealestes serendipitus'' was discovered by

Michael Waldman Michael A. Waldman is an American attorney and presidential speechwriter and political advisor, currently serving as the president of the Brennan Center for Justice, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, a nonprofit law and policy inst ...

during a school field trip he was leading on the Isle of Skye in 1971. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

is a fragment of jaw containing five molars and three premolars (BRSUG 20572)Panciroli, E., Benson, R.B. and Luo, Z.X., 2019
The mandible and dentition of Borealestes serendipitus (Docodonta) from the Middle Jurassic of Skye, Scotland
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 39(3), p.e1621884 and there were several other jaw fragments collected in the following years, and a partial skeleton, all of them from the

Kilmaluag Formation The Kilmaluag Formation is a Middle Jurassic geologic formation in Scotland. It was formerly known as the Ostracod Limestone for the abundance of fossil freshwater ostracods within it. The Kilmaluag Formation is very fossiliferous, with ostracods ...

. Michael Waldman and Robert J. G. Savage then carried out multiple trips to the island in search of mammals and other fossils. They named ''Borealestes'' at the same time as a new species of

tritylodontid Tritylodontidae ("three-knob teeth", named after the shape of their cheek teeth) is an extinct family of small to medium-sized, highly specialized mammal-like cynodonts, bearing several mammalian traits like erect limbs, endothermy and details ...

, ''

Stereognathus ''Stereognathus'' is an extinct genus of tritylodontid cynodonts from the Middle Jurassic of the United Kingdom. There is a single named species: ''S. ooliticus'', named after the Great Oolite deposits of England. A second species, ''S. hebrid ...

'hebridicus' '' (now synonymised with ''S. ooliticus''). In 2003, ''Borealestes mussettae'' (originally 'B. mussetti') was named from isolated molars found in the

Bathonian In the geologic timescale the Bathonian is an age and stage of the Middle Jurassic. It lasted from approximately 168.3 Ma to around 166.1 Ma (million years ago). The Bathonian Age succeeds the Bajocian Age and precedes the Callovian Age. Strat ...

aged

Kirtlington Kirtlington is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about west of Bicester. The parish includes the hamlet of Northbrook. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 988. The parish measures nearly north–south and about east� ...

Mammal bed of

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, England.Sigogneau-Russell D. 200
Docodonts from the British Mesozoic
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 48, 3, 357-374 Both of these localities belong to the

Forest Marble Formation The Forest Marble is a geological formation in England. Part of the Great Oolite Group, it dates to the late Bathonian stage of the Middle Jurassic.Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Middle Jurassic, Europe)." In: Weisham ...

. It was named ''mussetti'' in honour of Frances Mussett, in recognition of her major participation in fossil excavation at Kirtlington Cement Quarry. However, ''mussetti'' is the masculine form, and so this has been amended to ''mussettae'' by subsequent authors. It was recently recognised as different from ''Borealestes'', and so moved to the newly erected genus '' Dobunnodon'' in 2021. A new species, ''B. cuillinensis'', was named in 2021 based on a partial skeleton found in the same site in the

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It was found in 2018 by Prof Richard Butler of the University of Birmingham, during fieldwork on the island.

Appearance

''Borealestes'' is currently known from two partial skeletons which include skull bones, jaws, and postcrania, multiple isolated teeth, and ear bones ( petrosalsPanciroli, E., Schultz J.A., and Luo, Z-X. 2018
The morphology of the petrosal and stapes of Borealestes (Mammaliaformes, Docodonta) from the Middle Jurassic of Skye, Scotland
Papers in Palaeontology https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1233).

Docodonta Docodonta is an Order (biology), order of extinct Mammaliaformes, mammaliaforms that lived during the Mesozoic, from the Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. They are distinguished from other early Mammaliaformes, mammaliaforms by their relativel ...

ns are small (shrew to rat sized) mammaliaforms - the wider grouping that includes mammalians and their closest relatives. ''Borealestes'' is believed to be a basal member of

.Luo Z-X, and Martin. 200
Analysis of molar structure and phylogeny of docodont genera
Bulletin of Carnegie Museum of Natural History 39: 27-47

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q12899042 Docodonts Fossil taxa described in 1972 Taxa named by Michael Waldman (paleontologist) Taxa named by R. J. G. Savage Jurassic synapsids of Europe Prehistoric cynodont genera