Albertatherium

Albertatherium Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 86.3–83.5 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Family:	†Alphadontidae
Genus:	†Albertatherium Fox, 1971
Type species
†Albertatherium primus Fox, 1971
Species
†A. primus Fox 1971 †A. secundus Johanson 1995

Albertatherium (meaning "beast of Alberta") is an extinct genus of alphadontid metatherians that lived during the Late Cretaceous of North America. The genus contains two species, Albertatherium primus (the type species), and Albertatherium secundus. Fossils have been found in the Eagle Formation of Montana and the Milk River Formation of Alberta.^[1][2]

Taxonomy

Albertatherium is a member of the Alphadontidae, an extinct family of metatherians closely related to marsupials. Recent phylogenetic studies group it with other northern non-marsupial metatherians such as Alphadon and Turgidodon.^[3][4] A 2016 phylogenetic analysis is shown below.^[5]

Marsupialiformes	Gurlin Tsav skull Borhyaenidae Mayulestes Jaskhadelphys Andinodelphys Pucadelphys Asiatherium Iugomortiferum Kokopellia Aenigmadelphys Anchistodelphys Glasbiidae Glasbius Pediomyidae Pediomys Stagodontidae Pariadens Eodelphis Didelphodon Alphadontidae Turgidodon Alphadon Albertatherium Marsupialia

References

1. Davis, B.M.; Cifelli, R.L.; Cohen, J.E (2016). "First fossil mammals from the Upper Cretaceous Eagle Formation (Santonian, northern Montana, USA), and mammal diversity during the Aquilan North American land mammal age" (PDF). Palaeontologia Polonica. 67: 101–126.
2. Johanson, Zerina (1995-02-15). "New information concerning the Late Cretaceous marsupial Albertatherium Fox, 1971". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 14 (4): 595–602. doi:10.1080/02724634.1995.10011581. ISSN 0272-4634.
3. Guillermo W. Rougier; Brian M. Davis; Michael J. Novacek (2015). "A deltatheroidan mammal from the Upper Cretaceous Baynshiree Formation, eastern Mongolia". Cretaceous Research. 52, Part A: 167–177. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2014.09.009.
4. S. Bi, X. Jin, S. Li and T. Du. 2015. A new Cretaceous metatherian mammal from Henan, China. PeerJ 3:e896
5. Wilson, G.P.; Ekdale, E.G.; Hoganson, J.W.; Calede, J.J.; Linden, A.V. (2016). "A large carnivorous mammal from the Late Cretaceous and the North American origin of marsupials". Nature Communications. 7: 13734. doi:10.1038/ncomms13734. PMC 5155139. PMID 27929063.