A new mammal skull from the Lower Cretaceous of China with implications for the evolution of obtuse-angled molars and ‘amphilestid’ eutriconodonts

We report the discovery of Juchilestes liaoningensis , a new genus and species of eutriconodont mammal from the Lujiatun Site of the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation (123.2 ± 1.0 Ma; Lower Aptian). The holotype preserves a partial skull and full dentition. Among eutriconodonts, its lower dentition is similar to taxa formerly assigned to the paraphyletic group of ‘amphilestids’. Some have considered ‘amphilestid’ molars to represent the...