''Eucosmodon'' is a

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 ...

of extinct

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

Paleocene The Paleocene ( ), or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. It is a member of the extinct order of

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 of

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 the family

Eucosmodontidae Eucosmodontidae is a poorly preserved family of fossil mammals within the extinct order Multituberculata. Representatives are known from strata dating from the Upper Cretaceous through the Lower Eocene of North America, as well as the Paleocene t ...

. This genus has partly also been known as ''

Neoplagiaulax ''Neoplagiaulax'' is a mammal genus from the Paleocene of Europe and North America. In the case of the latter continent, there may possibly be some slightly earlier, Upper Cretaceous material too. It existed in the age immediately following the e ...

''. All known

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 preserve ...

s of this small mammal are restricted to teeth.

Species

All known species of ''Eucosmodon'' have been found in the

San Juan Basin The San Juan Basin is a geologic structural basin located near the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States. The basin covers 7,500 square miles and resides in northwestern New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, and parts of Utah a ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

(United States). * ''Eucosmodon americanus'' is a species of which

Puercan The Puercan North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), spanning the interval from 66,000,000 to 63,300,000 years BP lasting . It is usua ...

(Paleocene)-age fossils have been found. Some, but not all, of this fossil material has been reclassified as ''E. primus''. This animal, which probably weighed something like 750 g, has been cited as a possible descendant of that species. * ''Eucosmodon molestus'' is a species of

Torrejonian The Torrejonian North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), typically set from 63,300,000 to 60,200,000 years BP lasting . It is usually ...

(Paleocene) age. It has been cited as a possible descendant of ''E. americanus''. * ''Eucosmodon primus'', also from the Puercan part of the Paleocene, have been found in the

Nacimiento Formation The Nacimiento Formation is a sedimentary rock formation found in the San Juan Basin of western New Mexico (United States). It has an age of 61 to 65.7 million years, corresponding to the early and middle Paleocene. The formation has yielded an ...

of the San Juan Basin. This species is based on fossils originally ascribed to ''E. americanus''. * A possible fourth species, ''Eucosmodon kuszmauli'', has also been named.

References

* (Most of this information has been derived from this page) * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q5406227 Cimolodonta Paleocene mammals Paleocene genus extinctions Extinct mammals of North America Prehistoric mammal genera Fossil taxa described in 1921