Zalambdalestes
Name:
Zalambdalestes
(much-like-lambda robber).
Phonetic: Za-lam-dah-less-teez.
Named By: W. K. Gregory & G. G.
Simpson - 1926.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia, Eutheria,
Anagalida, Zalambdalestidae.
Species: Z. lechei (type).
Diet: Insectivore.
Size: About 20 centimetres long.
Known locations: Mongolia - Mongolia -
Djadokhta Formation.
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial remains.
Zalambdalestes has been interpreted as a Eutherian mammal, though it has also been considered to have been an early placental mammal. Zalambdalestes would have been similar to shrews today, hunting for insects while trying to avoid predatory dinosaurs such as the dromaeosaurid Mahakala and the troodont Byronosaurus.
Further reading
- Cretaceous mammal skulls from Mongolia. - American Museum
Novitates 225:1-20. - W. K. Gregory & G. G.
Simpson - 1926.
- New data on the skull and dentition in the Mongolian Late
Cretaceous eutherian mammal Zalambdalestes. -
Bulletin Of The
American Museum Of Natural History 281, 1-144. - J. R.
Wible, M. J. Novacek & G. W. Rougier - 2004.
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