Sinodelphys
Name:
Sinodelphys.
Phonetic: Sy-no-del-fiss.
Named By: Z.-X. Luo, Q. Ji, J. R. Wible
& C.-X. Yuan - 2003.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia, Metatheria.
Species: S. szalayi (type).
Diet: Insectivore.
Size: About 15 centimetres long.
Known locations: China, Liaoning Province -
Yixian Formation.
Time period: Barremian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Almost complete individual
including impressions of soft tissue and fur.
When described in 2003, Sinodelphys was the oldest confirmed and definitive marsupial mammal. Sinodelphys was very small, only about fifteen centimetres long, and is thought to have lived most of its life either hidden up trees or amongst dense undergrowth well out of reach of predatory dinosaurs that would have been running around at the time.
Further reading
- An Early Cretaceous tribosphenic mammal and metatherian evolution.
- Science 302:1934-1939. - Z.-X. Luo, Q. Ji, J. R.
Wible & C.-X. Yuan - 2003.
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