''Liotomus'' is a genus of extinct

mammal 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 ...

from the Paleocene epoch (early

Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...

era). It lived in Europe and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, and was a member of the extinct order Multituberculata, lying within 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 and possibly the family

Cimolodontidae Cimolodontidae is a family of fossil mammals within the extinction, extinct Order (biology), order Multituberculata. Representatives are known from the Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene of North America. The family Cimolodontidae was named by Oth ...

. The genus ''Liotomus'' was named by E. D. Cope in 1884. This genus is sometimes placed within family

Eucosmodontidae Eucosmodontidae is a poorly preserved family of fossil mammals within the extinct order Multituberculata. Representatives are known from strata dating from the Upper Cretaceous through the Lower Eocene of North America, as well as the Paleo ...

(Jepsen 1940).

Species

*''Liotomus marshi'' (Lemoine, 1882) ** ''L. marshi'' remains are known from the Upper Paleocene of Cernay, France. ** ''L. marshi'' has been cited as a descendant of ''Anconodon gidleyi''. *''Liotomus vanvaleni'' ** ''L. vanvaleni'' remains are known from the San Juan Basin, New Mexico.

References

* Cope (1884), "The Tertiary Marsupialia." '' American Naturalist'', 18, p. 686-697. * Sloan (1981), "Systematics of Paleocene multituberculates from the San Juan Basin, New Mexico," pp. 127–160, in Lucas et al. (eds), "Advances in San Juan Basin paleontology." University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. * Kielan-Jaworowska Z & Hurum JH (2001), "Phylogeny and Systematics of multituberculate mammals." ''Paleontology'' 44, p. 389-429. {{Taxonbar, from=Q6556101 Ptilodontoids Paleocene mammals Paleocene genus extinctions Prehistoric mammals of Europe Prehistoric mammal genera