Acristatherium
Name:
Acristatherium
(Crestless beast).
Phonetic: Ah-kris-tah-feee-ree-um.
Named By: Yaoming Hu, Jin Meng, Chuankui Li
& Yuanqing Wang - 2010.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia, Eutheria.
Species: A. yanensis (type).
Diet: Insectivore.
Size: Total size unknown, holotype skull is 25
millimetres long.
Known locations: China, Liaoning Province -
Yixian Formation.
Time period: Aptian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial skull.
Although so far known from only a single partial skull, Acristatherium is thought to represent one of the oldest known eutherian mammals. Acristatherium probably spent most of the time hunting for invertebrate prey which could easily be caught and processed by the small but sharp teeth, while trying to stay out of sight of predatory dinosaurs like Sinornithosaurus, Huaxiagnathus and Tianyuraptor.
Further reading
- ‘New basal eutherian mammal from the Early Cretaceous Jehol biota,
Liaoning, China, Yaoming Hu, Jin Meng, Chuankui Li &
Yuanqing Wang - 2010.
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