Durlstodon

{{Short description|Extinct family of mammals}}

{{Automatic taxobox

|fossil_range = {{fossil range|Berriasian}}

|image = Molars of Durlstotherium newmani & Durlstodon ensomi.jpg

|image_caption = Molars of Durlstotherium newmani (A) and Durlstodon ensomi (B)

|taxon = Durlstodon

|authority = Sweetman et al., 2017

|type_species = {{extinct}}Durlstodon ensomi

|type_species_authority = Sweetman et al., 2017

}}

Durlstodon is a genus of extinct mammal from the Early Cretaceous of Southern England. It contains a single species, Durlstodon ensomi, which is known from molars found in the Berriasian Lulworth Formation of Durlston Bay, Dorset, after which the genus was named. The species name honours Paul Ensom, discoverer of many fossil mammals from Lulworth. Durlstodon and two of its contemporaries, Tribactonodon and Durlstotherium, had tribosphenidan (three-cusped) molars, which are an advanced characteristic among eutherian mammals and suggest that the group emerged earlier than the Early Cretaceous.{{cite journal|last1=Sweetman |first1=S.C.|last2=Smith |first2=G. |last3=Martill |first3=D.M. |year=2017 |title=Highly derived eutherian mammals from the earliest Cretaceous of southern Britain |journal=Acta Palaeontologica Polonica |volume=62 |issue=4 |pages=657–665 |doi=10.4202/app.00408.2017|doi-access=free }}

File:Purbeck lagoon.jpg (right and center) and Durlstodon (left)]]