''Liaoconodon'' is an

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 ...

genus of early

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 the early Cretaceous (early

Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ago), a ...

stage, approximately 120 Ma). It is a eutriconodont which lived in what is now the Jianchang of

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, eastern

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. It is known from the holotype

IVPP The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP; ) of China is a research institution and collections repository for fossils, including many dinosaur and pterosaur specimens (many from the Yixian Formation). As its name suggest ...

V 16051, which consists of nearly complete

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

and skull. It was found in the Jiufotang Formation ( Jehol Biota) near Xiaotaizi, Lamadong. It was first named by Jin Meng, Yuanqing Wang and Chuankui Li in

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and the type species is ''Liaoconodon hui''. Studies on its anatomy show that it was a semi-aquatic mammal, having a long body and paddle-like limbs.

Phylogeny

Cladogram after Thomas Martin et al. 2015Thomas Martin, Jesús Marugán-Lobón, Romain Vullo, Hugo Martín-Abad, Zhe-Xi Luo & Angela D. Buscalioni (2015). A Cretaceous eutriconodont and integument evolution in early mammals. Nature 526, 380–384.

References

Cretaceous mammals Fossil taxa described in 2011 Prehistoric animals of China Jiufotang fauna Taxa named by Jin Meng Taxa named by Yuanqing Wang Taxa named by Chuankui Li Prehistoric mammal genera {{cretaceous-mammal-stub