''Buginbaatar'' is an extinct genus of

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 Upper

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

. It is a member of the extinct order

Multituberculata Multituberculata (commonly known as multituberculates, named for the multiple tubercles of their teeth) is an extinct Order (biology), order of rodent-like mammals with a fossil record spanning over 130 million years. They first appeared in the M ...

, within the suborder

Cimolodonta Cimolodonta is a clade of Multituberculata, multituberculate mammals that lived from the Cretaceous to the Eocene. They probably lived something of a rodent-like existence until their ecological niche was assumed by true rodents. The more basal ...

and family

Cimolomyidae Cimolomyidae is a family of fossil mammala within the extinct order Multituberculata. Representatives are known from the Late Cretaceous of North America and Mongolia, from the late Santonian to their extinction at the end of the Maastrichtian. ...

. It lived towards the end of the

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 ...

era. The genus ''Buginbaatar'' was named by Kielan-Jaworowska Z. and Sochava A.V. in 1969 based on the remains of a single species. Remains of this species, dubbed ''Buginbaatar clarki'', were found in Upper Cretaceous

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum (: strata) is a layer of Rock (geology), rock or sediment characterized by certain Lithology, lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by v ...

of the

Nemegt Formation The Nemegt Formation (also known as Nemegtskaya Svita) is a geological formation in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, dating to the Late Cretaceous. The formation consists of river channel sediments and contains fossils of fish, turtles, crocodilians ...

of Bügiyn Tsav in Mongolia. Based on the dimensions of its teeth, ''Buginbaatar'' was slightly larger than '' Valenopsalis'', which was estimated to weigh around , comparable to the extant ''

Cynomys Prairie dogs (genus ''Cynomys'') are herbivorous burrowing Marmotini, ground squirrels native to the grasslands of North America. There are five recognized species of prairie dog: black-tailed prairie dog, black-tailed, white-tailed prairie dog ...

''. It is the only Cretaceous Mongolian multituberculate not to belong to the family

Djadochtatherioidea Djadochtatherioidea is a superfamily of extinct mammals known from the upper Cretaceous and Paleocene of what is now Central Asia, North America and Europe. They were members of the order Multituberculata. These were very ecologically diverse; s ...

. Remains are incomplete and the assignment of ''Buginbaatar'' to the

is tentative, (Kielan-Jaworowska & Hurum 2001, p. 408).

References

* Kielan-Jaworowska & Sochava (1969), "The first multituberculate from the uppermost Cretaceous of the

Gobi The Gobi Desert (, , ; ) is a large, cold desert and grassland region in North China and southern Mongolia. It is the sixth-largest desert in the world. The name of the desert comes from the Mongolian word ''gobi'', used to refer to all of th ...

Desert (Mongolia)". ''Acta Palaeontologica Polonica'' 14, p. 355-371. * Kielan-Jaworowska Z & Hurum JH (2001), "Phylogeny and Systematics of multituberculate mammals". ''Paleontology'' 44, p. 389-429. * Much of this information has been derived fro

MESOZOIC MAMMALS: "basal"

, Boffius, Boffiidae and

Kogaionidae Kogaionidae is a family of fossil mammals within the Extinction, extinct order Multituberculata. Representatives are known from the Upper Cretaceous and the Paleocene of Europe. Having started as island endemics on Hațeg Island during the Upper ...

, an Internet directory. {{Taxonbar, from=Q4986193 Cimolodonta Cretaceous mammals of Asia Maastrichtian life Nemegt fauna Fossil taxa described in 1969 Taxa named by Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska Prehistoric mammal genera