''Amphilestes'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

eutriconodont Eutriconodonta is an order (biology), order of early mammals. Eutriconodonts existed in Asia (including Insular India, pre-contact India), Africa, Europe, North America, North and South America during the Jurassic and the Cretaceous periods. The ...

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

from the

Middle Jurassic The Middle Jurassic is the second Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period (geology), Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 161.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relativel ...

of the United Kingdom. It was one of the first

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian r ...

mammals discovered and described.

Discovery

The first specimen of ''Amphilestes'' was discovered along with several other mammal jaws in the Stonesfield Slate Quarry,

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

before 1764.Kermack, KA. 1988 British Mesozoic mammal sites. ''Special Papers in Palaeontology'', 40:85-93. However, it was not until 1812 that William Broderip bought the jaws, and he and his mentor - the famous palaeontologist Revd

William Buckland William Buckland Doctor of Divinity, DD, Royal Society, FRS (12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856) was an English theologian, geologist and paleontology, palaeontologist. His work in the early 1820s proved that Kirkdale Cave in North Yorkshire h ...

- recognised that they were of mammal origin. ''Amphilestes broderipii'' was originally '' Amphitherium broderipii'', until it was recognised as a distinct and new species in 1871. Owen, R. 1871. Monograph of the Fossil Mammalia of the Mesozoic Formations. Palaeontographical Society.

Description

''Amphilestes'' is known from various dental and mandibular remains. The dental formula of the mandible is 4:1:4:5. The premolars are symmetrical and the crowns look like tricusped molars, with the central cusp being largest in premolars and molars, though the size difference is less great in the premolars. George Gaylord Simpson (1928, p. 71) noted that the teeth of ''Amphilestes'' are diagnosable in having “molar cusps high and slender, molar cingulum rising below the main cusp, molar enamel not pitted."Butler, P.M. and Sigogneau-Russell, D. 2016. Diversity of triconodonts in the Middle Jurassic of Great Britain. Palaeontologia Polonica 67, 35–65. LSID urn:lsid:zoobank.org: pub: C4D90BB6-A001-4DDB-890E-2061B4793992

References

Eutriconodonta Bathonian genera Middle Jurassic mammals of Europe Jurassic England Fossils of England Fossil taxa described in 1871 Taxa named by Richard Owen Monotypic prehistoric mammal genera {{jurassic-mammal-stub