Stirtodon

Stirtodon is an extinct genus of monotreme mammal from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Griman Creek Formation of Australia. The genus contains a single species, S. elizabethae, known from a large isolated premolar. Stirtodon may be the largest toothed monotreme discovered.[1][2] Several other monotremes are known from the Griman Creek Formation, including Dharragarra, Kollikodon, Opalios, Parvopalus, and Steropodon.[3]

Stirtodon
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian),
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Monotremata
Family: †Teinolophidae (?)
Genus: †Stirtodon
Species:
†S. elizabethae
Binomial name
†Stirtodon elizabethae
Flannery et al., 2020

It may have been pig sized and lived in an area with mainly monotremes. It helps demonstrate that within 26 million years of when monotremes were thought to have arisen, the group was rapidly evolving. By 100mya the group had diversified to pig-sized species, rat-sized species, in-between sized species, some terrestrial, some aquatic.[4]

References
  1. Rich, Thomas H.; Flannery, Timothy F.; Vickers-Rich, Patricia (2020). "Evidence for a Remarkably Large Toothed-Monotreme from the Early Cretaceous of Lightning Ridge, NSW, Australia". In Prasad, Guntupalli V.R.; Patnaik, Rajeev (eds.). Biological Consequences of Plate Tectonics: New Perspectives on Post-Gondwana Break-up–A Tribute to Ashok Sahni. Springer Nature. pp. 77–81. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-49753-8_4. ISBN 978-3-030-49753-8.
  2. Flannery, Timothy F.; Rich, Thomas H.; Vickers-Rich, Patricia; Ziegler, Tim; Veatch, E. Grace; Helgen, Kristofer M. (2022-01-02). "A review of monotreme (Monotremata) evolution". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 46 (1): 3–20. doi:10.1080/03115518.2022.2025900. ISSN 0311-5518.
  3. Flannery, Timothy F.; McCurry, Matthew R.; Rich, Thomas H.; Vickers-Rich, Patricia; Smith, Elizabeth T.; Helgen, Kristofer M. (2024-05-26). "A diverse assemblage of monotremes (Monotremata) from the Cenomanian Lightning Ridge fauna of New South Wales, Australia". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology: 1–19. doi:10.1080/03115518.2024.2348753. ISSN 0311-5518.
  4. Marshall, Candice (28 May 2024). "Is the "Echidnapus" the Rosetta Stone of early mammal evolution?". Australian Geographic.
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