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Cretaceous zhelestid mammals are zalambdalestoids

Research Paleontology

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TL;DR - New Mongolian fossils place Cretaceous zhelestid mammals within Zalambdalestoidea rather than among placental-like herbivore relatives, revising their evolutionary classification.

Zhelestids share zalambdalestid skull and limb characteristics.
Their distinctive molars represent dental variation within Zalambdalestoidea.
The findings challenge earlier interpretations based heavily on herbivore-like teeth.

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Cretaceous zhelestid mammals are zalambdalestoids

Nature Andres Giallombardo, Eva A. Hoffman, Maureen A. O’Leary, Paúl M. Velazco, Shawn P. Zack, Michael J. Novacek 2026-07-29 doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10861-5

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Providers: Hugging Face · N/A OpenAlex · Citations 0 Publisher · N/A Semantic Scholar · N/A X · N/A Fetched 2026-08-28 14:32:16.236564 UTC

TL;DR - New Mongolian fossils place Cretaceous zhelestid mammals within Zalambdalestoidea rather than among placental-like herbivore relatives, revising their evolutionary classification.

Zhelestids share zalambdalestid skull and limb characteristics.
Their distinctive molars represent dental variation within Zalambdalestoidea.
The findings challenge earlier interpretations based heavily on herbivore-like teeth.

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