Meketibolodon
Encyclopedia
Meketibolodon is a genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of extinct mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

 from the Kimmeridgian (Upper Jurassic
Jurassic
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to  Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...

) Camadas de Guimarota
Camadas de Guimarota
The Camadas de Guimarota is a geological formation in Europe, and the synonym of "Camadas de Alcobaça". It dates back to the Late Jurassic.-Vertebrate fauna:...

 of Guimarota
Guimarota
Guimarota is a disused coal mine that contains a diverse array of fossil animals and plants from the Upper Jurassic, Kimmeridgian period. It is located in central Portugal, near the city of Leiria....

, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

. It was a relatively early member of the also extinct order Multituberculata
Multituberculata
The Multituberculata were a group of rodent-like mammals that existed for approximately one hundred and twenty million years—the longest fossil history of any mammal lineage—but were eventually outcompeted by rodents, becoming extinct during the early Oligocene. At least 200 species are...

, suborder Plagiaulacida
Plagiaulacida
Plagiaulacida is a group of extinct multituberculate mammals. Multituberculates were among the most common mammals of the Mesozoic, "the age of the dinosaurs"...

, family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Paulchoffatiidae
Paulchoffatiidae
Paulchoffatiidae is a family of extinct mammals that lived predominantly during the Upper Jurassic period, though a couple of genera are known from the earliest Cretaceous. Some undescribed fossils from the Middle Jurassic of England may represent earlier versions. Remains have been reported from...

. The genus was named by Hahn G. in 1993 based on nine specimens of lower jaw.

"Meketibolodon (Hahn 1993) is distinguished from the other genera [of Paulchoffatiidae] by two characters: the tooth row is significantly convexly curved upwards, and the corpus mandibulae has angled margins ventrally (Hahn and Hahn 1998b). The incisor is more strongly curved than it is the case in Paulchoffatia
Paulchoffatia
Paulchoffatia is a genus of extinct mammal of the Upper Jurassic - Lower Cretaceous. It was a relatively early member of the also extinct order Multituberculata, within the suborder "Plagiaulacida" and family Paulchoffatiidae. It lived in Europe during the "age of the dinosaurs."The genus...

, and its root is longer. The corpus mandibulae is similarly massive to that in Paulchoffatia" (Hahn and Hahn 2000, p.105). The corpus mandibulae is the part of the lower jaw beneath the tooth row, and mekéti (μηκέτι) is Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

for 'no longer'.
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