Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 15, 2014

Bharattherium is a mammal that lived in India during the Maastrichtian (latest Cretaceous). The genus has a single species, Bharattherium bonapartei. It is part of the gondwanathere family Sudamericidae, which is also found in Madagascar and South America during the latest Cretaceous. The first fossil of Bharattherium was discovered in 1989 and published in 1997, but the animal was not named until 2007, when two teams independently gave it different names. The specific name bonapartei honors Argentinean paleontologist José Bonaparte, who was the first to describe a gondwanathere fossil. Bharattherium is known from a total of eight isolated fossil teeth, including one incisor and seven molariforms (molar-like teeth). Bharattherium molariforms are high, curved teeth, with a height of 5.97 to 8.40 mm. The tooth enamel has traits that have been interpreted as protecting against cracks in the teeth. The hypsodont (high-crowned) teeth of sudamericids like Bharattherium is reminiscent of later grazing mammals, and the discovery of grass in Indian fossil sites contemporaneous with those yielding Bharattherium suggest that sudamericids were indeed grazers. (Full article...)

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