''Sinobaatar'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

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 Lower

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 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It is categorized within the also 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 ...

and among these it belongs to the plagiaulacid lineage (a possible

infraorder 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 ...

). ''Sinobaatar'' was a small

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...

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 ...

era, commonly called "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". The genus was named by Hu Y. and Wang Y. in 2002. Three species have been described. It has been found in Lower Cretaceous

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...

of the Yixian Formation in

Liaoning Liaoning () is a coastal province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and is the northernmost ...

, China. According to Hu & Wang (2002),

" e dental features of ''Sinobaatar'' show again that eobaatarids are obviously intermediate between Late
Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), 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 J ...
multituberculates and the later forms".

Many Multituberculata are only known from teeth, but the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

of ''Sinobaatar'' is a reasonably complete skeleton. ''Sinobaatar'' was eaten, at least on occasion, by the feathered dinosaur ''

Sinosauropteryx prima ''Sinosauropteryx'' (meaning "Chinese reptilian wing", ) is a compsognathid dinosaur. Described in 1996, it was the first dinosaur taxon outside of Avialae (birds and their immediate relatives) to be found with evidence of feathers. It was cove ...

'' (Hurum ''et al.'' 2006).

Etymology

The name ''Sinobaatar'' is a

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 ...

and Mongolian mixture of "Sino–" and "Bataar" (

Baghatur Baghatur ( otk, 𐰉𐰍𐰀, Baga; mn, ''Baγatur'', Khalkha Mongolian: Баатар ''Bātar''; tr, Bağatur, Batur, Bahadır; russian: Богатырь Bogatyr; bg, Багатур Bagatur; fa, بهادر; pa, ਬਹਾਦੁਰ , بہا� ...

) and means "Chinese hero". The type species name is in honor of Lingyuan City.

References

* Hurum, Jørn H.; Luo, Zhe-Xi & Kielan-Jaworowska, Zofia (2006): Were mammals originally venomous? ''Acta Palaeontologica Polonica'' 51(1): 1–11
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* Kielan-Jaworowska, Zofia & Hurum, Jørn H. (2001): Phylogeny and Systematics of multituberculate mammals. ''Paleontology'' 44: 389–429. * Kusuhashi, Hu, Wang, Setoguchi & Matsuoka (2009): Two eobaatarid (Multituberculata; Mammalia) genera from the Lower Cretaceous Shahai and Fuxin Formations, Northeastern China. ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'' 29(4): 1264–1288. * Hu & Wang (2002): ''Sinobaatar'' gen. nov.: First multituberculate from the Jehol Biota of Liaoning, Northeast China. ''Chinese Science Bulletin'' 47(11): 933–938. * Much of the above material has been derived fro

Cretaceous mammals Multituberculates Prehistoric animals of China Yixian fauna Prehistoric mammal genera {{cretaceous-mammal-stub