Chiniquodontidae
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| Chiniquodontidae Conservation status: Fossil | ||||||||
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Chiniquodontidae is a family of meat-eating mammal-like reptiles (therapsids) that lived during the Upper Triassic of South America and perhaps Europe. A further possible representative, Aleodon, has been identified from the Middle Triassic of Africa. The family is thought to have been reasonably close relations to the ancestors of mammals.
They ranged in size from tiny Gaumia (should it be a chiniquodontid) to the dog-sized Belesodon. Other fairly closely related creatures are known as Eoraetia, from the Upper Triassic of Europe, and the rather indeterminate Kunminia, from the Lower Jurassic of China.