genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
of basal
mesonychia
Mesonychia ("middle claws") is an extinct taxon of small- to large-sized carnivorous ungulates related to artiodactyls. Mesonychids first appeared in the early Paleocene, went into a sharp decline at the end of the Eocene, and died out entirely ...
ns which existed in Portugal, during the earliest
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...
(
Neustrian
Neustria was the western part of the Kingdom of the Franks.
Neustria included the land between the Loire and the Silva Carbonaria, approximately the north of present-day France, with Paris, Orléans, Tours, Soissons as its main cities. It later ...
age). It is known from the holotype – UNLSNC-19, and other parts of
dentary
In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...
, recovered from the
Silveirinha Formation
The Silveirinha Formation is an Early Eocene (Ypresian, or MP7 or Neustrian in the ELMA classification) geologic formation of the Mondego Basin in the Região Centro of central-western Portugal. The sandstones, siltstones and conglomerates were ...
,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal:
:* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...
. It was first named by Rodolphe Tabuce, Julien Clavel and Miguel Telles Antunes in 2011 and the type species is ''Mondegodon eutrigonus''. The generic name is derived from "
Baixo Mondego
Baixo Mondego (; ''Lower Mondego'' in English) is a former Portuguese NUTS3 subregion that comprised the lower part of the Mondego River. It was abolished at the January 2015 NUTS 3 revision.triisodontid generic names. The
specific name Specific name may refer to:
* in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database
In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules:
* Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
is derived from the prefix ''eu'' (Greek), "well", and ''trigonus'' (Latin), "three-cornered" in reference to the remarkable tricuspidate pattern of the
upper molars
The molars or molar teeth are large, flat teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammals. They are used primarily to grind food during chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, ''molaris dens'', meaning "millstone to ...