Megaconus is an extinct genus of allotherian mammal from the Middle Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation of Inner Mongolia, China. The type and only species, Megaconus mammaliaformis was first described in the journal Nature in 2013. Megaconus is thought to have been a herbivore that lived on the ground, having a similar posture to modern-day armadillos and rock hyraxes. Megaconus was in its initial description found to be member of a group called Haramiyida. A phylogenetic analysis published along its description suggested that haramiyidans originated before the appearance of true mammals, but in contrast, the later description of the haramiyidan Arboroharamiya in the same issue of Nature indicated that haramyidans were true mammals.[1] If haramiyidans are not mammals, Megaconus would be one of the most basal ("primitive") mammaliaforms to possess fur, and an indicator that fur evolved in the ancestors of mammals and not the mammals themselves.[2] However, later studies cast doubt on the euharamiyidan intrepretation, instead finding it to be a basal allotherian mammal.[3]
^Zhou, C. F.; Wu, S.; Martin, T.; Luo, Z. X. (2013). "A Jurassic mammaliaform and the earliest mammalian evolutionary adaptations". Nature. 500 (7461): 163–167. Bibcode:2013Natur.500..163Z. doi:10.1038/nature12429. PMID 23925238. S2CID 4346751.
^"Jurassic squirrel's secret is out". The Hindu. August 9, 2013.
^Averianov, Alexander O.; Martin, Thomas; Lopatin, Alexey V.; Schultz, Julia A.; Schellhorn, Rico; Krasnolutskii, Sergei; Skutschas, Pavel; Ivantsov, Stepan (May 2021). Hautier, Lionel (ed.). "Multituberculate mammals from the Middle Jurassic of Western Siberia, Russia, and the origin of Multituberculata". Papers in Palaeontology. 7 (2): 769–787. doi:10.1002/spp2.1317. ISSN 2056-2799. S2CID 219067218.
China. The type and only species, Megaconus mammaliaformis was first described in the journal Nature in 2013. Megaconus is thought to have been a herbivore...
rate fur was already present in Mammaliaformes such as Castorocauda and Megaconus. Early cynodonts had numerous small foramina on their snout bones, similar...
docodonts, haramiyidans and eutriconodonts, with specimens of Castorocauda, Megaconus and Spinolestes preserving compound follicles with both guard hair and...
earliest clear evidence of hair or fur is in fossils of Castorocauda and Megaconus, from 164 million years ago in the mid-Jurassic. In the 1950s, it was...
burrowing Pseudotribos, the oldest known eutherian Juramaia. the rat-like Megaconus and the gliding Arboroharamiya. The plant life of the Tiaojishan Formation...
2013 alongside a description of the closely related haramiyidan Megaconus. Unlike Megaconus, which is thought to have been ground-dwelling, Arboroharamiya...
fur is in fossils of Castorocauda and Megaconus, from 164M years ago in the mid-Jurassic. As both mammals Megaconus and Castorocauda have a double coat...
Arboroharamiya (Haramiyida, Mammalia): A Comparison with Other Haramiyidans and Megaconus and Implications for Mammalian Evolution". PLOS ONE. 9 (12): e113847....
furculiferum A gliding euharamiyidan similar in lifestyle to a colugo. Megaconus M. mammaliaformis Inner Mongolia Daohugou bed One specimen An eleutherodontid...
docodont mammaliaform Agilodocodon A, scansorius A docodont mammaliaform Megaconus M. mammaliaformis A possible allotherian mammal Mirusodens M. caii an...
Euharamiyida Bi et al. 2014; Eleutherodontida Kermack et al. 1998] Genus †Megaconus Zhou et al. 2013 Genus †Shenshou Bi et al. 2014 Genus †Arboroharamiya...
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