Henkelotherium

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Henkelotherium
Replica of the almost complete fossil as it was found.

Replica of the almost complete fossil as it was found.

Temporal occurrence
Upper Jurassic
150 million years
Locations
Systematics
Mammals (mammalia)
Dryolestoidea
Dryolestida
Dryolestidae
Henkelotherium
Scientific name
Henkelotherium
Cancer , 1991
species
  • Henkelotherium guimarotae

Henkelotherium is an extinct genus of mammals that occurred around 150 million years ago in the Upper Jurassic of southwestern Europe. The only scientifically described species so faris the type species Henkelotherium guimarotae .

It was found in the Guimarota coal mine near the city of Leiria in Portugal . The Berlin paleontologist and excavation manager in Guimarota, Bernard Krebs , named the animal in the first description after his colleague at the time Siegfried Henkel , who discovered the fossil in 1976.

features

Henkelotherium guimarotae is the first Jurassic mammal to have an almost complete skeleton found. It was a small animal, about the size of a shrew . The strong claws and the long tail indicate a tree dweller, similar to today's squirrels . The teeth show that Henkelotherium was an insectivore ( insect- eating animal).

Systematics

In terms of its systematic position , the genus Henkelotherium belongs to the peramurids (although originally placed in a family of its own), a group of primitive mammals, which, however, already have the origin of the Theria , the modern mammals ( marsupials (Metatheria) and placentas (Eutheria)) , be close.

literature

  • Bernard Krebs: The skeleton of "Henkelotherium guimarotae" gen. Et sp. nov. (Eupantotheria, Mammalia) from the Upper Jura of Portugal. In: Berlin geoscientific treatises. Series A: Geology and Paleontology 133, 1991, ISSN  0172-8784 , pp. 1-110.
  • Bernard Krebs: The henkelotheriids from the Guimarota mine. In: Thomas Martin, Bernard Krebs (ed.): Guimarota. A Jurassic Ecosystem. Publishing house Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-931516-80-6 , pp. 121–128.
  • Ramón Vázquez Molinero: Comparative anatomy of Henkelotherium guimarotae (Holotheria), a late Jurassic small mammal, and its relevance for the evolution of the mode of locomotion of modern mammals . Dissertation . Free University of Berlin, Geosciences Department, 2003. Dissertation online

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Martin: Professor Bernard Krebs died ( Memento of November 7, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), Paläontologie aktuell, issue 44, July 2001, page 2.
  2. ↑ Tim Bartels Abandoned Coal Mine turns out to be a fossil treasure trove Berliner Zeitung, January 10, 2001

Web links