Dome-headed, small-brained island mammal from the Late Cretaceous of Romania.

ABSTRACT: The island effect is a well-known evolutionary phenomenon, in which island-dwelling species isolated in a resource-limited environment often modify their size, anatomy, and behaviors compared with mainland relatives. This has been well documented in modern and Cenozoic mammals, but it remains unclear whether older, more primitive Mesozoic mammals responded in similar ways to island habitats. We describe a reasonably complete and well-preserved skeleton of a kogaionid, an enigmatic radiation of Cretaceous island-dwelling multituberculate mammals previously represented by fragmentary fossils. This skeleton, from the latest Cretaceous of Romania, belongs to a previously unreported genus and species that possesses several aberrant features, including an autapomorphically domed skull and one of

SUBMITTER: Csiki-Sava Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5948999 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature