''Tashkumyrodon'' is an extinct

mammaliaform Mammaliaformes ("mammalian forms") is a clade that contains the crown group mammals and their closest extinct relatives; the group radiated from earlier probainognathian cynodonts. It is defined as the clade originating from the most recent ...

from the

Middle Jurassic The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 163.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively rare, but geological formations ...

(

Callovian In the geologic timescale, the Callovian is an age and stage in the Middle Jurassic, lasting between 166.1 ± 4.0 Ma (million years ago) and 163.5 ± 4.0 Ma. It is the last stage of the Middle Jurassic, following the Bathonian and preceding the ...

)

Balabansai Formation The Balabansai Formation (sometimes transcribed Balabansay, also known as Balabansai Svita) is a geological formation in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan whose strata date back to the Bathonian and Callovian stages of the Middle Jurassic. Di ...

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the ea ...

It is named after the town of

Tash-Kömür Tash-Kömür (, russian: Таш-Кумыр ''Tash-Kumyr'') is one of the five largest towns of Jalal-Abad Region in Southern Kyrgyzstan. It is a city of regional significance, not part of a district. Its area is , and its resident population was ...

, near where the original specimen was found. It belongs to the order

Docodonta Docodonta is an order of extinct mammaliaforms that lived during the Mesozoic, from the Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. They are distinguished from other early mammaliaforms by their relatively complex molar teeth, from which the order gets ...

and is closely related to ''

Sibirotherium ''Sibirotherium'' is an extinct genus of docodont mammaliaform. It is known from only a single named species, ''Sibirotherium rossicum'', known from jaw fragments and teeth found in the Early Cretaceous (Aptian) aged Ilek Formation in western Si ...

'' and ''

Tegotherium ''Tegotherium'' is an extinct mammaliaform from the Late Jurassic of East Asia. The type species ''T. gubini'' is known from the Shar Teeg Beds of Mongolia and an indeterminate species is also known from the Late Jurassic Qigu Formation of Ch ...

''. There is only one species currently known, ''Tashkumyrodon desideratus''. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

fossil is a lower left molar. Like many Mesozoic mammaliaforms, it is only known from isolated teeth. The fossil is housed at the Zoological Institute of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

References

Docodonts Callovian life Jurassic animals of Asia Jurassic synapsids Fossils of Kyrgyzstan Fossil taxa described in 2004 Taxa named by Thomas Martin (paleontologist) Taxa named by Alexander O. Averianov Prehistoric cynodont genera {{Paleo-therapsid-stub