- Lavanify
Taxobox
name = "Lavanify"
fossil_range =Late Cretaceous
regnum =Animal ia
classis =Mammal ia
subordo =Gondwanatheria
familia =Sudamericidae
genus = "Lavanify"
species = "L. miolaka"
binomial = "Lavanify miolaka"
binomial_authority = Krause "et al",1997 "Lavanify" is a
genus ofmammal from the extinctsuborder Gondwanatheria that lived inMadagascar during the "Age of Dinosaurs", specifically during the UpperCretaceous period . The position of Gondwanatherians within class Mammalia is not yet clear.The genus and
species were named by David Krause, G. V. R. Prasad, Wighart von Koenigswald, Ashok Sahni, and Frederick Grine in 1997. "Lavanify" means "long tooth"."L. miolaka"
The species "Lavanify miolaka" was discovered in Madagascar in deposits dated to the Maastrichtian stage of the Upper Cretaceous period.
This
type genus is based a tooth, which was found while quarrying for the skull of a dinosaur, "Majungasaurus ". A second specimen was also discovered and assigned to the species (referred). As of April 2003, "L. miolaka" is the only named, non-South America n member of Gondwanatheria, although further, unnamedfossil s are known fromIndia andAntarctica .From Krause "et al", 1997, p.504::"The teeth of "Lavanify" differ from those of the only previously known sudamericid genera, "
Gondwanatherium " and "Sudamerica ", in possessing prominent and continuous inter-row sheets of interprismatic matrix in dental enamel and at least one cheek-tooth position that has a single, V-shaped dentine island and lacks enamel on one side of the crown. "Lavanify" further differs from "Gondwanatherium" in having cheek-teeth with vertical furrows that extend to the base of the crown and onto the root".References
* David W. Krause, G. V. R. Prasad, Wighart von Koenigswald, Ashok Sahni and Frederick E. Grine. (1997) "Cosmopolitanism among gondwanan Late Cretaceous mammals". "Nature" 390, pages 504–507. ( [http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v390/n6659/abs/390504a0_fs.html abstract] )
* Much of this information has been derived from [http://home.arcor.de/ktdykes/gondwanatheria.htm MESOZOIC MAMMALS: Gondwanatheria] , an Internet directory.
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