Cimolomyidae is a family of fossil mammala within 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 ...

. Representatives are known from the Late Cretaceous of North America and

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 ...

, from the late

Santonian The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 86.3 ± 0.7 mya ( million years ago) and 83.6 ± 0.7 m ...

to their extinction at the end of the

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...

. The family is part of the

suborder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized ...

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 ...

. Other than that, their systematic relationships are hard to define. Some authors have placed the taxon within

Taeniolabidoidea Taeniolabidoidea is a group of extinct mammals known whose fossils can be found in North America and Asia. They were the largest members of the extinct order Multituberculata, as well as the largest non-therian mammals. '' Lambdopsalis'' even pr ...

. Kielan-Jaworowska and Hurum (2001) expressly don't. The family Cimolomyidae was named by

Othniel Charles Marsh Othniel Charles Marsh (October 29, 1831 – March 18, 1899) was an American professor of paleontology. A prolific fossil collector, Marsh was one of the preeminent paleontologists of the nineteenth century. Among his legacies are the discovery or ...

in 1889. It contains the following genera: * '' Cimolomys'' * '' Buginbaatar'' * '' Essonodon'' * '' Meniscoessus'' * ?'' Parikimys'' * ?'' Paressonodon''

Notes

References

* Marsh (1889), "Discovery of Cretaceous Mammalia. Part II". ''Am. J. Sci.'' 3, 38, p. 81-92. * 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"

, Cimolomyidae, 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=Q5120157 Cimolodonta Prehistoric mammal families Santonian first appearances Maastrichtian extinctions Taxa named by Othniel Charles Marsh