''Didelphodus'' is an

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 ...

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 ...

eutherian Eutheria (from Greek , 'good, right' and , 'beast'; ), also called Pan-Placentalia, is the clade consisting of placental mammals and all therian mammals that are more closely related to placentals than to marsupials. Eutherians are distingu ...

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 ...

that inhabited North America and Europe during the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided b ...

. It was

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant which eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores we ...

Taxonomy

The genus ''Didelphodus'' was erected by

E. D. Cope Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, he distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested i ...

in 1882, with the type species ''Deltatherium absarokae'' transferred to his new genus. The genus has been placed in the family Leptictidae or in the family

Cimolestidae Cimolesta is an extinct order of non-placental eutherian mammals. Cimolestans had a wide variety of body shapes, dentition and lifestyles, though the majority of them were small to medium-sized general mammals that bore superficial resemblances t ...

. Species placed in the genus include: *''Didelphodus absarokae'' (Cope, 1881) (type species) *''Didelphodus caloris'' Gingerich, Folie & Smith, 2023 *''Didelphodus rheos'' Storer, 1995 *''Didelphodus serus'' Storer, 1984

Palaeoecology

Based on its dental morphology and enamel δ¹⁸O values, ''Didelphodus'' had an

diet.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q131160489 Eocene mammals of Europe Eocene mammals of North America Cimolestans Prehistoric mammal genera