''Spalacotherium'' is a genus of

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

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

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pro ...

of Europe. The type species ''Spalacotherium tricuspidens'' was originally named by

Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils. Owe ...

in 1854, and its material includes maxillary and dentary fragments and many teeth from the Berriasian Lulworth Formation of southern England. Referred species include ''S. taylori'', ''S. evansae'' and ''S. hookeri'' also from the Lulworth deposits, and ''S. henkeli'' from Barremian deposits of Galve, Spain. The Lulworth taxon ''Peralestes longirostris'', named by Owen in 1871, is a junior synonym of the type species ''S. tricuspidens''. ''Spalacotherium'' is the namesake taxon of the family

Spalacotheriidae Spalacotheriidae is a family of extinct mammals belonging to the paraphyletic group 'Symmetrodonta'. They lasted from the Early Cretaceous to the Campanian in North America, Europe, Asia and North Africa. Spalacotheriids are characterised by hav ...

, which is an extinct clade within Trechnotheria that may be closely related to the

Gondwana Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages ...

n clade

Meridiolestida Meridiolestida is an extinct clade of mammals known from the Cretaceous and Cenozoic of South America and possibly Antarctica. They represented the dominant group of mammals in South America during the Late Cretaceous. Meridiolestidans were morp ...

, or united with the family Zhangheotheriidae to form Symmetrodonta.''S. evansae'' is also from the Berriasian aged Angeac-Charente bonebed in western France.Ronan Allain, Romain Vullo, Lee Rozada, Jérémy Anquetin, Renaud Bourgeais, et al.
Vertebrate paleobiodiversity of the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Angeac-Charente Lagerstätte (southwestern France): implications for continental faunal turnover at the J/K boundary
Geodiversitas, Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle Paris, In press. ffhal-03264773f

References

Symmetrodonta Berriasian genus first appearances Barremian genus extinctions Hauterivian genera Valanginian genera Early Cretaceous mammals of Europe Prehistoric mammal genera Fossil taxa described in 1854 {{cretaceous-mammal-stub