Lavocatia

Taxobox
name = "Lavocatia"
fossil_range = Early Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Multituberculata
familia = Pinheirodontidae
genus = "Lavocatia"
species = "L. alfambrensis"
binomial = "Lavocatia alfambrensis"
binomial_authority = Canudo J.I. and Cuenca G., 1996

"Lavocatia" is a genus of extinct mammal from the Lower Cretaceous of Spain. It was a member of the also extinct order Multituberculata, and lived alongside of dinosaurs. Like most Mesozoic mammals, it was a shrewish-sized animal. It's in the suborder "Plagiaulacida" and family Pinheirodontidae. The genus "Lavocatia" was named by Canudo J.I. Cuenca G. in 1996 based on a single tooth.

The species "Lavocatia alfambrensis" is known from the Barremian (Lower Cretaceous)-age strata of Galve, Spain. This genus is apparently differentiated by the number of cusps on the tooth; 15. Also referred to in the reference is Peramura. This was a more "advanced" group of mammals, possibly ancestral to ourselves (see "Peramus").

References

* Canudo & Cuenca (1996), "Two new mammalian teeth (Multituberculata and Peramura) from the Lower Cretaceous (Barremian) of Spain". "Cretaceous Research", 17 (2), p.215-228.
* Kielan-Jaworowska Z & Hurum JH (2001), "Phylogeny and Systematics of multituberculate mammals". "Paleontology" 44, p.389-429.
* Hahn, G., and R. Hahn (1999), "Pinheirodontidae n. fam. (Multituberculata, Mammalia) aus der tiefen Unter-Kreide Portugals". "Palaeontographica", 253(4/6), p.77-222.
* Much of this information has been derived from [http://home.arcor.de/ktdykes/plagiau.htm] MESOZOIC MAMMALS; Basal Multituberculata, an Internet directory.