''Bolodon'' ("lump tooth" from Ancient Greek βῶλος (bôlos), “clod, lump” + ὀδών (odṓn), "tooth") is a genus of extinct

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

from the Lower Cretaceous of Europe and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. It was a member of the extinct order of Multituberculata and belongs to the suborder Plagiaulacida and family

Plagiaulacidae Plagiaulacidae is a family of fossil mammals within the order Multituberculata. Remains are known from the Upper Jurassic and earliest Cretaceous of North America and Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a contine ...

Type species

The type species, ''Bolodon crassidens'', is known from fossils of the Lower Cretaceous of England from the Lulworth Formation in Durlston Bay, Dorset. The species ''Bolodon elongatus'' is possibly not referable to this genus: "?new genus to be erected for ''Bolodon elongatus''," (Kielan-Jaworowska & Hurum, 2001, p. 414). Fossils of the species ''Bolodon minor'' (type species of the ''Plioprion'') have been found in the Lower Cretaceous of Durlston Bay, Dorset. ''Plioprion'' (Cope, 1884) is probably synonymous with ''Bolodon''. The species ''Bolodon osborni'' was named by Simpson G.G. in 1928. Fossils have been found in the Berriasian (Lower Cretaceous) of Durlston Bay, Dorset. Cifelli et al. (2014) erected ''B. hydei'' for remains from the Berriasian-Valanginian age Chilson Member of the Lakota Formation of South Dakota.Cifelli, R.L., Davis, B.M., and Sames, B. 2014. Earliest Cretaceous mammals from the western United States. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 59 (1): 31–52.

References

* Kielan-Jaworowska Z & Hurum JH (2001), ''Phylogeny and Systematics of multituberculate mammals''. Paleontology 44, p. 389-429. * This information has been derived fro

''MESOZOIC MAMMALS; Plagiaulacidae, Albionbaataridae, Eobaataridae & Arginbaataridae, an Internet directory''. * Simpson (1928), ''A catalogue of the Mesozoic Mammalia in the Geological Department of the British Museum''. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), London, 215pp. Early Cretaceous mammals of Europe Early Cretaceous mammals of North America Multituberculates Taxa named by Richard Owen Fossil taxa described in 1871 Prehistoric mammal genera {{cretaceous-mammal-stub