Early Campanian Multituberculates (Mammalia: Allotheria) from the Upper Milk River Formation, Alberta

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Abstract
Mammalian teeth collected from the early Campanian Upper Milk River Formation, southernmost Alberta, document a hitherto unknown evolutionary radiation of Late Cretaceous ptilodontoid and taeniolabidoid multituberculates. New species of the ectypodontids Mesodma and Cimexomys, the ptilodontid Cimolodon, and the cimolomyid Meniscoessus are defined, and teeth possibly pertaining to a second species of Mesodma and two species of Cimolomys are described. A new genus and species with uncertain relationships to known multituberculate families, is tentatively classified in the Taeniolabidoidea. Among North American Late Cretaceous multituberculates, at least Mesodma, Cimexomys, Cimolodon, Cimolomys, and Meniscoessus are seen to be evolutionarily conservative during early Campanian to late Maestrichtian times. The effects of sampling error on relative taxonomic diversity at horizons in the North American Upper Cretaceous are discussed.

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