Pelvic structure and nature of reproduction in Multituberculata

Abstract

RECENTLY prepared skeletons of Mongolian Late Cretaceous multituberculate mammals permit complete reconstruction of the pelvic girdle for the first time; its structure suggests that multituberculates may have been viviparous. Most important for these studies is a specimen of Kryptobaatar dashzevegi¹ from the Djadokhta Formation (?late Santonian and/or ?early Campanian), in which both the left and right pelvic halves, including equipubic bones, were preserved undistorted and articulated with part of the vertebral column (Figs 1 and 2). Three of the pelves in the same collection, belonging to three different genera are less complete, but have the same structure as the Kryptobaatar pelvis. The previously known multituberculate pelvis of the Paleocene Eucosmodon^2,3 was incomplete and although correctly reconstructed did not show some important details, that are now described.