Plagiaulax 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 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 Lower Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

 of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. It was a 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...

, and shared the world with dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

s. It is of the 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"...

" and family Plagiaulacidae

Plagiaulacidae

Plagiaulacidae is a family of fossil mammals within the order Multituberculata. Remains are known from the Upper Jurassic of North America through the Lower Cretaceous of Europe...

. The genus was named by Hugh Falconer

Hugh Falconer

Hugh Falconer MD FRS was a Scottish geologist, botanist, palaeontologist and paleoanthropologist. He studied the flora, fauna and geology of India, Assam and Burma, and was the first to suggest the modern evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium...

 in 1857.

Fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

 remains of the species Plagiaulax becklesii are known from Durlston Bay in Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, England. They include at least one partial lower jaw with teeth, though there may well be further specimens. Some material has been reported from Galve

Galve, Teruel

Galve is a municipality located in the province of Teruel, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2006 census , the municipality has a population of 145 inhabitants. There is an important paleontological site.-Paleontological significance:...

, Spain. Another species, P. dawsoni, was provisionally named by Woodward in 1891. This came from the county of Sussex, which is further east along the English coast. It was subsequently damaged and there seems not to have been a scientific description. In 1859, von Pleninger apparently used the name P. falconi of unknown origin.