#sinoconodon

[alphynix]

Month of Mesozoic Mammals #03: Almost-Mammals Adelobasileus & Sinoconodon

The exact line between “highly mammal-like cynodonts” and “actual mammals” is very blurry. The transition was gradual and the fossil record is incomplete, and even the definition of “mammal” varies depending on who you ask. Do we take the strictest possible route and only include everything coming after the most recent common ancestor of all living mammals -- the “crown group” Mammalia itself? Or do we go broader and also include the closely related Mammaliaformes, which already had some of the defining anatomical features of mammals?

(For the purposes of this theme month I’m considering mammaliaformes to count as mammals, but if you prefer the crown group definition then it’ll be a few more days before we reach Mammalia-proper.)

The earliest ancestral mammaliaformes would have looked something like Adelobasileus, a transitional form from the Late Triassic of Texas, USA (221-205 mya). About 10-15cm long (4-6″), it was probably a shrew-like insectivore and may have been close to the start of the hypothetical “nocturnal bottleneck” in mammal evolution -- a point where mammal ancestors are thought to have taken up nighttime activity patterns to avoid competition and predation from early dinosaurs.

Sinoconodon is known from the Early Jurassic of China (196-189 mya). Unlike later mammals it seems to have experienced reptile-like continuous slow growth throughout its lifespan, and had multiple replacements of some of its teeth.

Fossils of several different life stages have been found, averaging at similar sizes to Adelobasileus, but the biggest and longest-lived specimens are estimated to have reached the size of a large brown rat at around 35cm long (1′2″) and 500g in weight (~18oz) -- big enough to be a weasel-like carnivore feeding on small vertebrate prey.

[albertonykus]

How mammals learned to hear. Please stop drawing Dimetrodon with visible ears.

[palaeopedia]

The chinese spiky tooth, Sinoconodon (1961)

Phylum : Chordata Class : Synapsida Order : Therapsida Suborder : Cynodontia Family : Sinoconodontidae Genus : Sinoconodon Species : S. rigneyi

Early Jurassic (210 - 200 Ma)

15 cm long (size)

China (map)

Sinoconodon rigneyi is an ancient mammaliamorph or early mammal (depending on systematic approach) that appears in the fossil record of China in the Sinemurian stage of the Early Jurassic period, about 193 million years ago. While in many traits very similar to reptiles, it possessed of a special, secondarily evolved jaw joint between the dentary and the squamosal bones, which had replaced the primitive reptilian one between the articular and quadrate bones, a trait commonly used to define mammals.

Although the animal is closely related to Morganucodon, it is regarded as the most basal of the mammaliaforms. It differed substantially from the more mammalian Morganucodon in its dental and growth habits. Like the reptiles, it was polyphydont, replacing many of its teeth throughout its lifetime, and it seems to have grown slowly but continuously until its death. Sinoconodon is thus less mammalian than early mammaliaforms like docodonts and morganucodonts. Even the smallest known individuals had already began the teething cycle of the front teeth, and combined with a poorly ossified jaw, it very probably did not suckle. The combination of reptilian and mammalian features makes it straddle the divide between the two classes anatomically and likely ecologically. There are simply no animals like it alive today.