Deltatheridiidae

Deltatheridiidae is an extinct family of basal carnivorous metatherians that lived during the Cretaceous and Paleogene. They were closely related to marsupials. Their fossils are restricted to Central Asia (Mongolia and Uzbekistan) and North America (United States - Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Wyoming). They mostly disappeared in the KT event, but a ghost lineage, currently represented by Gurbanodelta, survived until the late Paleocene by decreasing in size and becoming insectivorous.^[1]

Deltatheridiidae Temporal range: Barremian – Paleocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N Early Cretaceous-Paleocene
Deltatheridium praetrituberculare
A hypothetical life restoration of Sulestes karakshi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	†Deltatheroida
Family:	†Deltatheridiidae Gregory & Simpson, 1926
Type genus
Deltatheridium Gregory & Simpson, 1926
Genera
See text
Synonyms
Deltatheroididae Kielan-Jaworowska & Nessov, 1990 Nanocuridae Fox, Scott & Bryant, 2007

The family consist in six genera:^[2][3][4][5]

• Atokatheridium Kielan-Jaworowska & Cifelli, 2001
• Deltatheridium Gregory & Simpson, 1926
• Deltatheroides Gregory & Simpson, 1926
• Gurbanodelta X. Ni et al. 2016
• Lotheridium S. Bi et al. 2015
• Oklatheridium Davis, Cifelli & Kielan-Jaworowska, 2008
• Nanocuris Fox, Scott & Bryant, 2007
• Sulestes Nessov, 1985
• Tsagandelta G. W. Rougier et al. 2015