Phascolestes

{{Short description|Extinct family of mammals}}

{{Speciesbox

|fossil_range={{fossilrange|Berriasian}}

|image=Phascolestes mustelulus.jpg

|display_parents=2

|genus=Phascolestes

|parent_authority=Owen, 1871

|species=mustelulus

|authority=Owen, 1871

|synonyms_ref=

|synonyms=

• Peraspalax talpoides Owen, 1871
• Kurtodon pusillus Osborn, 1888

}}

Phascolestes is a genus of extinct mammal from the Berriasian epoch of Early Cretaceous Southern England. The type and only species is Phascolestes mustelulus, which was named by Richard Owen in 1871 for dental material from the Lulworth Formation.{{cite journal|last=Owen|first=R.|year=1871|title=Monograph of the Fossil Mammalia of the Mesozoic Formations|journal=The Palaeontographical Society|pages=1–115|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vknz7vNYuv4C}} Phascolestes is a close relative of co-existing taxon Achyrodon within the subfamily Kurtodontinae of the family Dryolestidae, with Kurtodon being a junior synonym of Phascolestes although the subfamily name is still applicable.{{cite journal|last1=Averianov|first1=A.O.|last2=Martin|first2=T.|last3=Lopatin|first3=A.V.|year=2013|title=A new phylogeny for basal Trechnotheria and Cladotheria and affinities of South American endemic Late Cretaceous mammals|journal=Naturwissenschaften|volume=100|issue=4|pages=311–326|doi=10.1007/s00114-013-1028-3|pmid=23494201|bibcode=2013NW....100..311A|s2cid=18504005}}

{{clade|style=font-size:85%; line-height:85%;

|label1=Dryolestidae

|1={{clade

|label1=Dryolestinae

|1={{clade

|1=Amblotherium

|2={{clade

|1=Laolestes

|2=Krebsotherium

|3={{clade

|1=Dryolestes

|2=Guimarotodus }} }} }}

|label2=Kurtodontinae

|2={{clade

|1=Crusafontia

|2={{clade

|1=Achyrodon

|2=Phascolestes }} }} }} }}