Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T07:00:29.216Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Baiotomeus, a new ptilodontid multituberculate (Mammalia) from the middle Paleocene of western North America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2016

David W. Krause*
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomical Sciences, Health Sciences Center, State University of New York, Stony Brook 11794

Abstract

Baiotomeus is a new genus of ptilodontid multituberculate from the late Torrejonian Land-Mammal Age (late middle Paleocene) of western North America. Baiotomeus douglassi (Simpson), the type species, has been assigned, at one time or another, to Ptilodus, Mimetodon, and Neoplagiaulax. In addition, a second, new species, B. lamberti, from three localities in the Medicine Rocks area of southeastern Montana is reported here. The Medicine Rocks localities are tentatively assigned a latest Torrejonian age, younger than localities yielding B. douglassi and younger than previously suggested on the basis of plesiadapid primates.

Multituberculates appear to have attained their highest species richness during the Torrejonian Land-Mammal Age, but the discovery of B. lamberti illustrates that our knowledge of multituberculate diversity is incomplete from even that interval of time.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Gingerich, P. D. 1976. Cranial anatomy and evolution of early Tertiary Plesiadapidae (Mammalia, Primates). University of Michigan Papers on Paleontology, 15:1141.Google Scholar
Johnston, P. A., and Fox, R. C. 1984. Paleocene and Late Cretaceous mammals from Saskatchewan, Canada. Palaeontographica A, 186:163222.Google Scholar
Krause, D. W. 1977. Paleocene multituberculates (Mammalia) of the Roche Percée local fauna, Ravenscrag Formation, Saskatchewan, Canada. Palaeontographica A, 159:136.Google Scholar
Krause, D. W. 1980. Multituberculates from the Clarkforkian Land-Mammal Age, late Paleocene–early Eocene, of western North America. Journal of Paleontology, 54:11631183.Google Scholar
Krause, D. W. 1982. Evolutionary history and paleobiology of early Cenozoic Multituberculata (Mammalia), with emphasis on the family Ptilodontidae. Unpubl. Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 555 p. Dissertation Abstracts International, 43:1774.Google Scholar
Rigby, J. K. Jr. 1980. Swain Quarry of the Fort Union Formation, middle Paleocene (Torrejonian), Carbon County, Wyoming: geologic setting and mammalian fauna. Evolutionary Monographs, 3:1178.Google Scholar
Rose, K. D. 1975. The Carpolestidae—early Tertiary primates from North America. Bulletin Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 147:174.Google Scholar
Rose, K. D. 1977. Evolution of carpolestid primates and chronology of the North American middle and late Paleocene. Journal of Paleontology, 51:536542.Google Scholar
Rose, K. D. 1981a. The Clarkforkian Land-Mammal Age and mammalian faunal composition across the Paleocene–Eocene boundary. University of Michigan Papers on Paleontology, 26:1197.Google Scholar
Rose, K. D. 1981b. Composition and species diversity in Paleocene and Eocene mammal assemblages: an empirical study. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 1:367388.Google Scholar
Schiebout, J. A. 1974. Vertebrate paleontology and paleoecology of Paleocene Black Peaks Formation, Big Bend National Park, Texas. Texas Memorial Museum Bulletin, 24:188.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G. 1935. New Paleocene mammals from the Fort Union of Montana. United States National Museum Proceedings, 83:221244.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G. 1937. The Fort Union of the Crazy Mountain Field, Montana, and its mammalian faunas. United States National Museum Bulletin, 169:1287.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L., and Sloan, R. E. 1966. The extinction of the multituberculates. Systematic Zoology, 15:261278.Google Scholar
West, R. M. 1976. The North American Phenacodontidae (Mammalia, Condylarthra). Contributions in Biology and Geology, Milwaukee Public Museum, 6:178.Google Scholar