Djadochtatheriidae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

mammals Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

within the extinct order

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 ...

. Remains are known from the Upper

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 th ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

. These animals lived during 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 ...

, also known as the "age of the

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

s". This family is part of the

suborder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

Cimolodonta Cimolodonta is a taxon of extinct mammals that lived from the Cretaceous to the Eocene. They were some of the more derived members of the extinct order Multituberculata. They probably lived something of a rodent-like existence until their ecolo ...

. The

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

Djadochtatheriidae was named by Z. Kielan-Jaworowska and J. H. Hurum in 1997. Multituberculates are a rather diverse group in terms of locomotion and diet. Forms like ''

Kryptobaatar ''Kryptobaatar''and also known as ''Gobibaatar'' or ''Tugrigbaatar'' 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 ...

'' and ''

Catopsbaatar ''Catopsbaatar'' is a genus of multituberculate, an extinct order of rodent-like mammals. It lived in what is now Mongolia during the late Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous epoch, about 72 million years ago. The first fossils were colle ...

'' were hopping,

gerboa Jerboas (from ar, جربوع ') are hopping desert rodents found throughout North Africa and Asia, and are members of the family Dipodidae. They tend to live in hot deserts. When chased, jerboas can run at up to . Some species are preyed on ...

-like omnivores (and this is probably the ancestral condition for the group, given that ''

Nemegtbaatar ''Nemegtbaatar'' is a genus of mammal from the Upper Cretaceous Period of what is now Mongolia. It existed in the company of much larger dinosaurs, found together in the Nemegt Basin. This creature was a member of the extinct order Multitubercu ...

'' also had this lifestyle), while '' Mangasbaatar'' was a robust, digging herbivore.Guillermo W. Rougier; Amir S. Sheth; Barton K. Spurlin; Minjin Bolortsetseg; Michael J. Novacek (2016). "Craniodental anatomy of a new Late Cretaceous multituberculate mammal from Udan Sayr, Mongolia" (PDF). Palaeontologia Polonica. 67: 197–248. doi:10.4202/pp.2016.67_197.

References

* Kielan-Jaworowska Z. and Hurum J. H. (1997), Djadochtatheria: a new suborder of multituberculate mammals. ''Acta Palaeontologica Polonica'' 42(2), p. 201–242. * Kielan-Jaworowska Z. and Hurum J. H. (2001), Phylogeny and Systematics of multituberculate mammals. ''Paleontology'' 44, p. 389–429. * Much of this information has been derived fro
Mesozoic Mammals
Djadochtatherioidea, an Internet directory. {{Taxonbar, from=Q3712245 Cimolodonts Late Cretaceous first appearances Late Cretaceous extinctions Prehistoric mammal families