Microcosmodontidae

Microcosmodontidae is a poorly preserved family of fossil mammals within the extinct order Multituberculata. Representatives are known from the Upper Cretaceous till the Lower Paleocene of North America.
For the technically minded, this family is part of the suborder of Cimolodonta. Other than that, their systematic relationships are hard to define.

Taxon: Microcosmodontidae (Holtzman RC & Wolberg DL, 1977) Fox RC, 1999
Remarks: Would it surprise anyone to know that microcosmodontids were rather small? They also had a "large lower incisor with a restricted enamel band, (Kielan-Jaworowska & Hurum 2001, p.417).
This grouping has also be seen as Microcosmodontinae Holtzman & Wolberg, 1977, within Eucosmodontidae. However, "Microcosmodontidae (new rank assigned by Fox to the subfamily Microcosmodontinae)," (Kielan-Jaworowska & Hurum, 2001).
References: Holtzman & Wolberg (1977), The Microcosmodontinae and Microcosmodon woodi , new multituberculate taxa (Mammalia) from the Late Paleocene of North America. Sci. Publi. of the Sci. Museum of Minnesota, New Series, r, p.1-13.
Fox (1999), The monophyly of the Taeniolabidoidea (Mammalia: Multituberculata), p.26 in Leanza (ed.). Abstracts, VII International Symposium on Mesozoic Terrestrial Ecosystems[?], Buenos Aires, pp.64.

Page reference: Page reference: Kielan-Jaworowska Z & Hurum JH (2001), Phylogeny and Systematics of multituberculate mammals. Paleontology 44, p.389-429.

(This information has been derived from [1] (http://home.arcor.de/ktdykes/taenio.htm) MESOZOIC MAMMALS; Eucosmodontidae, Microcosmodontidae and Taeniolabidoidea, an internet directory. As that's my webpage, there are no issues of copyright. Trevor Dykes)