Mixodectes

Mixodectes
Temporal range: Paleocene
Life restoration of Mixodectes pungens
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Family: †Mixodectidae
Genus: †Mixodectes
Cope, 1883
Species
  • Mixodectes pungens Cope, 1883
  • Mixodectes malaris Cope, 1884

Mixodectes is an extinct genus of mixodectid mammal that lived in North America during the Paleocene epoch.

Palaeobiology

M. pungens lived an arboreal lifestyle, and its teeth suggest that it was an omnivore whose diet included leaves despite lacking the specialist adaptations for folivory seen in colugos.

References

  1. ↑ Chester, Stephen G. B.; Williamson, Thomas E.; Crowell, Jordan W.; Silcox, Mary T.; Bloch, Jonathan I.; Sargis, Eric J. (11 March 2025). "New remarkably complete skeleton of Mixodectes reveals arboreality in a large Paleocene primatomorphan mammal following the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction". Scientific Reports. 15 (1). doi:10.1038/s41598-025-90203-z. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 11897203. PMID 40069232. Retrieved 4 October 2025 – via Nature.