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Tsagandelta, new deltatheroidan mammal from Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia



Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com


A new paper:

Guillermo W. Rougier, Brian M. Davis & Michael J. Novacek (2015) [2014]
A deltatheroidan mammal from the Upper Cretaceous Baynshiree
Formation, eastern Mongolia.
Cretaceous Research 52 (Part A): 167–177
DOI: 10.1016/j.cretres.2014.09.009
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667114001736

Deltatheroidans are a specialized group of basal metatherians with a
long fossil history and a broad geographic distribution across Asia
and North America. The group was among the first Mesozoic mammals
known by relatively complete cranial material, recovered from the Gobi
Desert by the American Museum expeditions in the 1920s.
Deltatheroidans exhibit trends in their dentition towards apparent
specializations for carnivory, including strongly developed
postmetacrista, pronounced postvallum-prevallid shear, and a reduction
of the ultimate molar. While the oldest undisputed deltatheroidans
hail from the Early Cretaceous of North America, Upper Cretaceous
rocks in central Asia have yielded the best preserved specimens and
the bulk of the diversity. Here we describe a new deltatheroidan,
Tsagandelta dashzevegi, gen. et sp. nov., from the Upper Cretaceous
Baynshiree Formation of eastern Mongolia. This taxon adds to the
diversity of the group in central Asia and provides further evidence
of uniformity among the Late Cretaceous vertebrate faunas across the
Gobi Desert.