Chronoperates Explained

Chronoperates (meaning "time wanderer" in Greek) is an extinct genus of mammal whose remains have been found in a late Paleocene deposit in Alberta, Canada. It is represented by the type species Chronoperates paradoxus and known only from a partial left lower jaw.[1] It was first identified in 1992 as a non-mammalian cynodont, implying a ghost lineage of over 100 million years since the previously youngest known record of non-mammalian cynodonts, which at that time was in the Jurassic period (some non-mammalian cynodonts are now known to have persisted until the Early Cretaceous). Subsequent authors have challenged this interpretation, particularly as the teeth do not resemble any known non-mammalian cynodonts. Chronoperates is now generally considered to be more likely to be a late-surviving symmetrodont mammal. This would still infer a ghost lineage for symmetrodonts, but a more plausible one, as symmetrodonts persisted into the Late Cretaceous.

References

http://darrennaish.blogspot.com/2006/05/time-wandering-cynodonts-and-docodonts.htmlhttps://web.archive.org/web/20081219051716/http://www.palaeos.com/Vertebrates/Units/410Cynodontia/410.400.html

Notes and References

  1. Fox . Richard C. . Youzwyshyn . Gordon P. . Krause . David W. . 10.1038/358233a0 . Post-Jurassic mammal-like reptile from the Palaeocene . Nature . 358 . 6383 . 233–235 . 1992 . 1630490. 1992Natur.358..233F . 4241895 .