''Paritatodon'' is an extinct
mammal which existed in
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the ea ...
and England during the
Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...
period.
It was originally 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 sever ...
specimen of ''
Shuotherium
''Shuotherium'' is a fossil mammal known from Middle-Late Jurassic of the Forest Marble Formation of England,Sigogneau−Russell, D. 1998. Discovery of a Late Jurassic Chinese mammal
in the upper Bathonian of England. Comptes Rendus de l’Acad ...
kermacki'', but Martin and Averianov (2010)
argued that it resembled the genus ''
Itatodon
''Itatodon'' is an extinct genus of primitive mammal known from the Bathonian aged Itat Formation of Russia. The genus is named after the formation, with the species being named after Leonid Petrovich Tatarinov who described the first docodont
fr ...
'' (
Docodonta) and so renamed it ''Paritatodon''.
Nonetheless, some recent phylogenetic studies assign it (and ''
Itatodon
''Itatodon'' is an extinct genus of primitive mammal known from the Bathonian aged Itat Formation of Russia. The genus is named after the formation, with the species being named after Leonid Petrovich Tatarinov who described the first docodont
fr ...
'') to
Shuotheriidae
Shuotheriidae is a small family of Jurassic mammals whose remains are found in China, England and possibly Russia. They have been proposed to be close relatives of Australosphenida, the group that contains living monotremes, together forming the ...
,
[Wang, Y.-Q. and Li, C.-K. 2016. Reconsideration of the systematic position of the Middle Jurassic mammaliaforms Itatodon and Paritatodon. Palaeontologia Polonica 67, 249–256.] while others continue to consider the taxon a docodont.
Like many Mesozoic mammals, this species is only known from its teeth, in this case two lower molars from 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: Weisha ...
in England,
and a single left lower molar from the
Balabansai Formation
The Balabansai Formation (sometimes transcribed Balabansay, also known as Balabansai Svita) is a geological formation in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan whose strata date back to the Bathonian and Callovian stages of the Middle Jurassic. D ...
in the Fergana Depression, Kyrgyzstan.
References
Bathonian life
Callovian life
Middle Jurassic mammals of Asia
Fossils of Kyrgyzstan
Middle Jurassic mammals of Europe
Jurassic England
Fossils of England
Fossil taxa described in 2010
Taxa named by Thomas Martin (paleontologist)
Taxa named by Alexander O. Averianov
Prehistoric mammal genera
{{jurassic-mammal-stub