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Castorocauda
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Illustration of the extinct mammal genus Castorocauda, showing a beaver-like animal with a long, flat tail and dense fur. A scale below indicates its length is about 40 centimeters or 16 inches.
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Illustration of the extinct mammal genus Castorocauda, showing a beaver-like animal with a long, flat tail and dense fur. A scale below indicates its length is about 40 centimeters or 16 inches.
Castorocauda Castorocauda weighed 500 to 800 grams (1.1 to 1.8 pounds) and was almost as large as living platypuses, making it the largest Jurassic mammal known.

Castorocauda

fossil mammal genus
Written by
Paul David Polly
David Polly is a vertebrate paleontologist at Indiana University-Bloomington and a Research Associate at the Field Museum in Chicago. His current research is on trait-based community dynamics in vertebrates,...
Paul David Polly
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

Castorocauda, genus of extinct beaverlike mammals known from fossils dated to the Middle Jurassic (175.6 million to 161.2 million years ago) of China. Classified in the extinct order Docodonta, Castorocauda weighed 500 to 800 grams (1.1 to 1.8 pounds), almost as large as living platypuses, making it the largest Jurassic mammal known. Castorocauda was found in the Jiulongshan Formation (which is also called the Haifanggou Formation) of China, which preserved a nearly complete skeleton and...

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