Essonodon

Essonodon Temporal range:
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	†Multituberculata
Family:	†Cimolomyidae
Genus:	†Essonodon Simpson, 1927
Species:	†E. browni
Binomial name
†Essonodon browni Simpson, 1927

Essonodon is a mammal genus from the Upper Cretaceous of North America. It was a member of the extinct order Multituberculata and lived towards the end of the "age of the dinosaurs." It is within the suborder Cimolodonta and perhaps the family Cimolomyidae. It contains a single species, Essonodon browni, formerly also known as Cimolodon nitidus (Marsh 1889).

The genus Essonodon was named by Simpson G.G. in 1927, and is also partly known as Cimolodon. The inclusion of this taxon within Cimolomyidae is tentative. (Kielan-Jaworowska & Hurum 2001, p. 408).

Fossils are known from the late Campanian to the end of the Maastrichtian. They are known from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana & North Dakota (USA), the Frenchman Formation of Saskatchewan (Canada), and the Fruitland & Ojo Alamo Formations of New Mexico (USA).

This species was a relatively large multituberculate that weighed around 1.18 kilograms.

References

• Simpson (1927), "Mammalian fauna of the Hell Creek Formation of Montana." Amer. Mus. Novit. 267, p. 1-7, 6 figs.
• Kielan-Jaworowska Z & Hurum JH (2001), "Phylogeny and Systematics of multituberculate mammals." Paleontology 44, p. 389-429.
• Much of this information has been derived from MESOZOIC MAMMALS; 'basal' Cimolodonta, Cimolomyidae, Boffiidae and Kogaionidae, an Internet directory.