Abstract
The earliest mammals in the fossil record are recognized by their multicusped and multiple-rooted cheek teeth, and in south-west Britain they appear abruptly in sediments that postdate the Rhaetic transgression at ∼200 Myr. Here we report the discovery of teeth of the primitive mammal Kuehneotherium in a terrestrial fissure deposit from the Mendip Hills (Somerset, UK) that predates the Rhaetic transgression. The teeth were found in the sediment fill of a collapsed cave1 at Emborough near Wells during the systematic reinvestigation of a number of late Triassic vertebrate sites. The assemblage is otherwise typically pre-Rhaetic and includes the gliding lizard Kuehneosaurus. The finding of mammalian remains throws doubt on the fundamental distinctiveness of pre-Rhaetic and post-Rhaetic vertebrate faunas.
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Fraser, N., Walkden, G. & Stewart, V. The first pre-Rhaetic therian mammal. Nature 314, 161–163 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/314161a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/314161a0
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