''Ecprepaulax'' is a Lower

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

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

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. It was a member of the also

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

order Multituberculata and shared the world with

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

s. It lies within the suborder " Plagiaulacida" and family

Pinheirodontidae Pinheirodontidae is a poorly known family of fossil mammals which belong to the informal suborder "Plagiaulacida" within the order Multituberculata. Remains are known from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous of Europe, (predominantly Portugal ...

. The genus ''Ecprepaulax'' was named by Hahn G. and Hahn R. in 1999 based on a single species ''Ecprepaulax anomala''

Fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

remains were found in Berriasian (Lower Cretaceous) strata in Portugal. The species is a multituberculate mammal within the informal suborder of " Plagiaulacida".

References

*Hahn & Hahn (1999), Pinheirodontidae n. fam. (Multituberculata) (Mammalia) aus der tiefen Unter-Kreide Portugals. Palaeontographica A, 253, p. 77-222. *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 Multituberculata, an Internet directory. Multituberculates Early Cretaceous mammals of Europe Prehistoric mammal genera Fossil taxa described in 1999 {{cretaceous-mammal-stub