''Valentinella'' is a Late

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 ...

genus of

eutherian Eutheria (; from Greek , 'good, right' and , 'beast'; ) is the clade consisting of all therian mammals that are more closely related to placentals than to marsupials. Eutherians are distinguished from noneutherians by various phenotypic tra ...

mammal from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, Europe.Tabuce, R., Vianey-Liaud, M. and Garcia, G., 2004
A eutherian mammal in the latest Cretaceous of Vitrolles, southern France
''Acta Palaeontologica Polonica'', 49(3). It was originally known from some damaged lower and upper jaws, and was cautiously referred to the lainodontine zhelestid mammals. This identification was later questioned Gheerbrant, E. and Astibia, H., 2012
Addition to the Late Cretaceous Laño mammal faunule (Spain) and to the knowledge of European “Zhelestidae”(Lainodontinae nov.)
Bulletin de la Société géologique de France, 183(6), pp.537-546. and even considered a ''

nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium'' it may be impossible to determine whether a s ...

'' by some researchers,Archibald, J.D. and Averianov, A., 2012
Phylogenetic analysis, taxonomic revision, and dental ontogeny of the Cretaceous Zhelestidae (Mammalia: Eutheria)
''Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society'', 164(2), pp.361-426. and remains uncertain due to the scarcity and fragmentary nature of the fossils. ''Valentinella'' was the third known Late Cretaceous eutherian mammal genus from Europe, after '' Labes'' and '' Lainodon''. It was found at Vitrolles-La Plaine in the Aix-en-Provence Basin (

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval from ...

in age), in south-eastern France.

References

Mammal taxonomy Prehistoric mammal genera {{Paleo-mammal-stub