Triconodon
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Triconodon Temporal range: 145–140 Ma |
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| Triconodon mordax jaw, Richard Owen 1861 | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | †Eutriconodonta |
| Family: | †Triconodontidae |
| Genus: |
†Triconodon Owen, 1859 |
| Type species | |
| †Triconodon mordax Owen, 1859 |
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Triconodon ("three coned tooth") is a genus of extinct mammal from the Early Cretaceous of Europe. First described in 1859 by Richard Owen, it is the type genus for the order Triconodonta, a group of mammals characterised by their three-cusped (triconodont) molar teeth. Since then, this "simplistic" type of dentition has been understood to be either ancestral for mammals or else to have evolved multiple times, rendering "triconodonts" a paraphyletic or polyphyletic assemblage respectively, but several lineages of "triconodont" mammals do form a natural, monophyletic group, known as Eutriconodonta, of which Triconodon is indeed part of.
Triconodon, therefore, is significant in the understanding of the evolution of mammals by originating the understanding of the "triconodont" grade and eutriconodont clade. Further discoveries on its skeletal anatomy also offer further insights on the palaeobiology of Mesozoic mammals.
Triconodon's type specimen is BMNH 47764, a single mandible found in the Purbeck Group, England. Since then, several other specimens have been found in this region, mostly represented by skulls and jaws, making it the most common mammal fossils in this area of Britain. These deposits date to the earliest Cretaceous, to the Berriasian at around 145-140 million years of age.
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