Acta Palaeontologica Polonica

A quasi-mammal from Lesotho

Patricia M. Less and Richard Mills

Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 28 (1-2), 1983: 171-180

The specimen described in this paper was discovered by the University College Expedition to Lesotho in 1968. It consists of most of the right maxilla. It contains the root of a large canine followed by an edentulous area which may contain the roots of one or more premolariform teeth. Posterior to this there is evidence of five molariform teeth. The most distal of th ese is probably the last molar. The molariform teeth are single rooted, while their crowns, although essentially single-cusped, have some resemblance to those of small contemporaneous true mammals of the family Morganucodontidae. The affinities of this animal are discussed in the paper, and it is suggested that there was an extensive fauna of small animals in the latest Triassic and earliest Jurassic, which although reptiles, had close affinities with the early mammals.

Key words: Therapsida, Morganucodontldae, quasi-mammals, Triassic, Jurassic, dentition, teeth, Lesotho.


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