Re: Multituberculates

[K and T Dykes <ktdykes@arcor.de>]

Hi Phil

<<How far north/south have multituberculates been found?  Have any been
found in Alaska's Colville River sites?  The southern Australia sites?>>

I haven't heard of any from Alaska.  The northern record presently seems to
end in Alberta/Saskatchewan.  A presence in Cretaceous Australia would seem
to me improbable, but so's a still swimming platypus.  As it happens, a
multi-like tooth has been reported but not described.  It wasn't explicitely
referred to as multi, so it's presently only a possibility.  The following
is copied in from one of my directories, and I hope the link still works!

"Australia, Flat Rocks, Victoria
"The tooth has a blade-like form such as is known in only four groups of
mammals. Only one of these groups is known from the Mesozoic Era when the
dinosaurs lived. This group is called the multituberculates... What we seem
to have is either a highly unusual multituberculate or a heretofore unknown
group of mammals."

Monash University, Dinosaur Dreaming, 2004 Annual Report on excavations
http://www.sci.monash.edu/msc/dinodream/
The report includes a photo.  Excavations will continue, and more
informative fossils may
turn up. These people are very determined.  (Thanks are due to Dann Pigdon,
who originally
posted the report on the Dinosaur Mailing List.)"

<<Some lineages passed through the K-T boundary and finally went extinct in
the (?)Oligocene.  I am curious if any pre-K-T taxa were cold
climate-adapted.>>

While the Oligocene has been cited, I can't say I've come across a record
older than Eocene.  I haven't heard of any adaptations for cold, but I'm not
sure if such things would show up in bones and teeth anyway.

Inevitably, my radar facilities for multis are self-built and less than
totally effective.  There must be some out there I've not heard of.
Cheers
Trevor

Mesozoic Eucynodonts - Multituberculata
http://home.arcor.de/ktdykes/multis.htm
The Mesozoic - more than just the dinosaur