Deltatheridiidae Explained

Deltatheridiidae is an extinct family of basal carnivorous metatherians that lived during the Cretaceous and Paleogene. They were closely related to marsupials. Their fossils are restricted to Central Asia (Mongolia and Uzbekistan) and North America (United States - Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Wyoming). They mostly disappeared in the KT event, but a ghost lineage, currently represented by Gurbanodelta, survived until the late Paleocene by decreasing in size and becoming insectivorous.^[1]

The family consist in six genera:^{[2] [3] [4] [5]}

• Atokatheridium
• Deltatheridium
• Deltatheroides
• Gurbanodelta
• Lotheridium
• Oklatheridium
• Nanocuris
• Sulestes
• Tsagandelta

Notes and References

1. Xijun Ni; Qiang Li; Thomas A. Stidham; Lüzhou Li; Xiaoyu Lu; Jin Meng (2016). "A late Paleocene probable metatherian (?deltatheroidan) survivor of the Cretaceous mass extinction". Scientific Reports. 6: Article number 38547. .
2. B. M. Davis, R. L. Cifelli, and Z. Kielan-Jaworowska. 2008. 1. Earliest Evidence of Deltatheroida (Mammalia: Metatheria) from the Early Cretaceous of North America. Mammalian Evolutionary Morphology: A Tribute to Frederick S. Szalay 3-24
3. G. P. Wilson and J. A. Riedel. 2010. New specimen reveals deltatheroidan affinities of the North American Late Cretaceous mammal Nanocuris. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30(3):872-884
4. B. M. Davis and R. L. Cifelli. 2011. Reappraisal of the tribosphenidan mammals from the Trinity Group (Aptian-Albian) of Texas and Oklahoma. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 56(3):441-462
5. Xijun Ni; Qiang Li; Thomas A. Stidham; Lüzhou Li; Xiaoyu Lu; Jin Meng (2016). "A late Paleocene probable metatherian (?deltatheroidan) survivor of the Cretaceous mass extinction". Scientific Reports. 6: Article number 38547. .