Catopsbaatar
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Catopsbaatar Temporal range: Late Cretaceous |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Multituberculata |
| Family: | Djadochtatheriidae |
| Genus: | Catopsbaatar |
| Species: | C. catopsaloides |
| Binomial name | |
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Catopsbaatar catopsaloides Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, 1974 |
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Catopsbaatar is an extinct genus of mammal that lived in Mongolia during the Upper Cretaceous Period. It coexisted with some of the late dinosaurs. This animal was a member of the extinct order Multituberculata within the Suborder Cimolodonta and family Djadochtatheriidae. It was a hopping, gerboa-like species.
The genus Catopsbaatar was named by Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska in 1974 and 1994 based on a single species. "One of the most characteristic features of Catopsbaatar (which differentiates it not only from Kryptobaatar but from all the djadochtatherioids in which the zygomatic ridges are known), is a very deep anterior zygomatic ridge, and a small medial zygomatic ridge, the latter forming about a quarter of a circle and adhering the anterior one from behind," (Kielan-Jaworowska et al., 2002).
The species Catopsbaatar catopsaloides has also been known as Catopsalis catopsaloides and Djadochtatherium catopsaloides (Kielan-Jaworowska 1974). Fossil remains were found in the Campanian (Upper Cretaceous)-age strata of Hermiin Tsav (Khermeen Tsav) in Mongolia. This was originally regarded as a species of Djadochtatherium. It also spent a while assigned to the North American genus Catopsalis (Cope 1882), courtesy of an interpretation in 1979 by Kielan-Jaworowska and Sloan. The original material consisted of three skulls, the most complete of which was juvenile. Subsequently, a fourth specimen was identified and then an even more complete example came to light in 1999, along with some postcranial skeleton. This belonged to an elderly animal. It has been provisionally considered by Kielan-Jaworowska but has yet to be fully described. With a skull length of around 6 cm, this was a pretty large multituberculate.
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