Alphadon

Alphadon

Taxobox
name = "Alphadon"
status = Fossil
fossil_range = Late Cretaceous


regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
subclassis = Theria
unranked_ordo = Metatheria
ordo = Alphadontia
familia = Alphadontidae
genus = "Alphadon"
genus_authority = Simpson, 1927

"Alphadon" (meaning “first tooth”) was a small, primitive mammal that was a member of the metatherians, a group of mammals that includes modern-day marsupials. The first fossil of "Alphadon" was discovered and named by George Gaylord Simpson in 1929.

The appearance of this animal is only a guess because only facts about the teeth are known. The appearance is mainly based on the look of today's opossum. "Alphadon" usually grew to 1 foot (30 cm), making it one of the largest Mesozoic mammals.

"Alphadon" lived in the late Cretaceous period and may have had a large variety in its diet, eating fruit, insects, and occasionally small vertebrates.

"Alphadon" lived in North America, ranging as north as Alberta and as south as New Mexico. It lived alongside dinosaurs like "Tyrannosaurus" and "Triceratops".

There are twelve different named species in the genus "Alphadon". On Gaylord's fossil hunt, he discovered and named the type "A. marshi".

External links

* [http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/users/haaramo/metazoa/deuterostoma/chordata/synapsida/Metatheria/Boreometatheria/Alphadontidae.htm Alphadontidae]
* [http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/indexa2.shtml "Alphadon" at Enchanted Learning]
* [http://www.paleocene-mammals.de/marsupials.htm Image and information on "Alphadon"]


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