Sunnyodon
Genus of mammals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sunnyodon is a genus of tiny, extinct mammal, probably of the Lower Cretaceous. Found in what is now southern England and Denmark, it was a relatively early member of the extinct order of Multituberculata. It is part of the suborder Plagiaulacida and family Paulchoffatiidae.
| Sunnyodon Temporal range: Early Cretaceous | |
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| Restoration | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | †Multituberculata |
| Family: | †Paulchoffatiidae |
| Subfamily: | †Paulchoffatiinae |
| Genus: | †Sunnyodon |
| Species: | †S. notleyi |
| Binomial name | |
| †Sunnyodon notleyi Kielan-Jaworowska & Ensom, 1992 | |
The genus Sunnyodon (meaning "Sunny tooth", after Sunnydown Farm) was named by Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska and Ensom P.C. in 1992 based on a single specimen.
Fossil remains of the species Sunnyodon notleyi Lower Cretaceous-age strata of the Lulworth Formation in Durlston Bay, Dorset, England and the Rabekke Formation in Denmark. This is a tooth-based species.
A tooth from the Danish island of Bornholm was assigned to Sunnyodon in 2004. It is the first fossil of a Mesozoic mammal found in Scandinavia.[1] A tooth has also been assigned to Sunnyodon from the Berriasian aged Angeac-Charente bonebed in France.[2]
