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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 

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