''Kouriogenys'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of extinct mammal from the Early Cretaceous of southern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The type and only species was originally described as '' Spalacotherium minus'' by Richard Owen in 1871 for a

dentary In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

with teeth from the

Berriasian In the geological timescale, the Berriasian is an age/stage of the Early/Lower Cretaceous. It is the oldest subdivision in the entire Cretaceous. It has been taken to span the time between 145.0 ± 4.0 Ma and 139.8 ± 3.0 Ma (million years ago ...

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 ...

, although it was given its own genus in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

by Brian Davis. The genus name is taken from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

"youthful" and "jaw" in reference to the replacement method of the premolars. ''Kouriogenys'' is closely related to coexisting genera ''

Peramus ''Peramus'' is an extinct genus of cladotherian mammal. It lived in the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous of Europe and North Africa. Species There are three known extinct species in the genus: * '' Peramus dubius'' Lulworth Formation, Unit ...

'' and ''

Peramuroides ''Peramuroides'' is a genus of extinct mammal from the Early Cretaceous of southern England. The type and only species is ''Peramuroides tenuiscus'', described in 2012 by Brian Davis for dentary fragments and teeth from the Berriasian Lulworth ...

'', and along with other genera these make up the family

Peramuridae The family Peramuridae is a family of mammals that lived in the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name), is the earlie ...

, a group of extinct

zatheria Cladotheria is a clade (sometimes ranked as a legion) of mammals. It contains modern therian mammals (marsupials and placentals) and several extinct groups, such as the dryolestoids, amphitheriids and peramurids. The clade was named in 1975 by M ...

ns.

References

Early Cretaceous mammals of Europe Berriasian genera Prehistoric mammal genera Fossil taxa described in 2012 {{cretaceous-mammal-stub