science

Taeniolabidoidea

Taeniolabidoidea is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Taeniolabidoidea rather than just read about it. In short: Taeniolabidoidea is a group of extinct mammals known whose fossils can be found in North America and Asia. They were the largest members of the extinct order Multituberculata, as well as the largest non-therian mammals.

Key takeaways

Taeniolabidoidea belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Taeniolabidoidea to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Taeniolabidoidea from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Taeniolabidoidea is a group of extinct mammals known whose fossils can be found in North America and Asia. They were the largest members of the extinct order Multituberculata, as well as the largest non-therian mammals. Lambdopsalis even provides direct fossil evidence of mammalian fur in a fairly good state of preservation for a 60-million-year-old animal. Some of these animals were large for their time; Taeniolabis taoensis is the largest known multituberculate and though smaller, Yubaatar is the largest known Mesozoic Asian multituberculate. T. taoensis averaged a body mass of 22.7 kilograms (50 lb).

The group was initially established as a suborder, before being assigned the rank of a superfamily by McKenna and Bell in 1997. Two families are recognised: the primarily North American Taeniolabididae, composed of Taeniolabis and Kimbetopsalis, and the exclusively Asian Lambdopsalidae, composed of Lambdopsalis, Sphenopsalis and Prionessus, with Valenopsalis being a basal form outside of either clade. Some of the fossils are well-preserved. Though the possible taeniolabidoid Bubodens is known from the Lancian Late Cretaceous deposits of South Dakota, and Yubaatar is known from Late Cretaceous deposits in the Henan Province, the clade is otherwise only clearly represented in Paleocene strata. Members of this group have dental formulas of 2.0.1.21.0.1.2 or 2.0.2.21.0.1.2. Russell notes that the taeniolabidoids had ever-growing, self-sharpening incisors, much like modern rodents, and the premolars that are usually characteristic of multituberculates are sometimes lost in this family. Derived characteristics of the taxon (apomorphies) include: "snout short and wide with anterior part of zygomatic arches directed transversely, resulting in a square-like shape of the skull (shared with Kogaionidae); frontals small, pointed posteriorly, almost or completely excluded from the orbital rim".

Notes

References Dykes, Trevor. "Mesozoic Mammals; Eucosmodontidae, Microcosmodontidae and Taeniolabidoidea, an internet directory". Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Kielan-Jaworowska, Zofia; Hurum, J.H. (2001). "Phylogeny and Systematics of Multituberculate Mammals". Palaeontology. 44 (3): 389–429. doi:10.1111/1475-4983.00185. Kielan-Jaworowska, Zofia; Qi, Tao (1990). "Fossorial adaptations of a Taeniolabidoid Multituberculate mammal from the Eocene of China". Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 28 (2): 83–94. McKenna, M.C.; Bell, S.K. (1997). Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. Columbia University Press. Carroll, Robert I. (1988). Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W.H.Freeman and Company. ISBN 0-716-71822-7. Williamson, Thomas E.; Brusatte, Stephen L.; Secord, Ross; Shelley, Sarah (2015). "A new taeniolabidoid multituberculate (Mammalia) from the middle Puercan of the Nacimiento Formation, New Mexico, and a revision of taeniolabidoid systematics and phylogeny". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 177: 183–208. doi:10.1111/zoj.12336. Wilson, Gregory P.; Evans, Alistair R.; Corfe, Ian J.; Smits, Peter D.; Fortelius, Mikael; Jernvall, Jukka (2012). "Adaptive radiation of multituberculate mammals before the extinction of dinosaurs". Nature. 483 (7390): 457–460. doi:10.1038/nature10880. S2CID 4419772. Xu, L.; Zhang, X.; Pu, H.; Jia, S.; Zhang, J.; Meng, J. (2015). "Largest known Mesozoic multituberculate from Eurasia and implications for multituberculate evolution and biology". Scientific Reports. 5 14950. doi:10.1038/srep14950. PMC 4615031. PMID 26492455.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Taeniolabidoidea

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Taeniolabidoidea claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Taeniolabidoidea before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Taeniolabidoidea ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Taeniolabidoidea

In research: Taeniolabidoidea appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Taeniolabidoidea in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Taeniolabidoidea is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Late Cretaceous first appearances, Multituberculata, Paleocene extinctions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Taeniolabidoidea outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Taeniolabidoidea in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Taeniolabidoidea means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Taeniolabidoidea out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Taeniolabidoidea in simple terms?

Why does Taeniolabidoidea matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Taeniolabidoidea?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Taeniolabidoidea.