Editing Morganucodon (section)

== History of discovery ==
[[File:Morganucodon watsoni.JPG|thumb|left|Lower jaw of ''M. watsoni'', Natural History Museum, London]]
In the summer of 1947, fieldwork was done at Duchy Quarry in [[Glamorgan]] in southern Wales. Grey [[Conglomerate (geology)|conglomerate]] that formed fissure fill deposits within [[karst]]ic voids in [[Carboniferous Limestone|Carboniferous limestone]] was extracted. In 1949, [[Walter Georg Kühne]] noted the lower cheek tooth of a primitive mammal while examining samples of the rock. He named it ''Morganucodon watsoni,'' with the genus name being derived from Morganuc, which Kühne stated was the name of South [[Glamorgan]] in the [[Domesday Book]], with the species name being in honour of [[D. M. S. Watson]].<ref name=":0"/> Additional remains of ''M. watsoni'' were described by Kühne in 1958.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kühne |first=Walter Georg |author-link=Walter Georg Kühne |date=1958-08-01 |title=Rhaetische Triconodonten aus Glamorgan, ihre Stellung zwischen den Klassen Reptilia und Mammalia und ihre Bedeutung für die REICHART'sche Theorie |trans-title=Rhaetian triconodonts from Glamorgan, their position between the classes Reptilia and Mammalia and their significance for REICHART's theory. |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02989032 |journal=Paläontologische Zeitschrift |language=de |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=197–235 |doi=10.1007/BF02989032 |issn=0031-0220 |s2cid=128828761|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Also in 1958, [[Kenneth Kermack]] and Frances Mussett described additional remains from Pant Quarry, about a mile from Duchy Quarry, that had been collected in 1956.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Clemens|first=William A.|date=May 1979|title=A problem in morganucodontid taxonomy (Mammalia)|url=https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article-lookup/doi/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1979.tb01898.x|journal=Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society|language=en|volume=66|issue=1|pages=1–14|doi=10.1111/j.1096-3642.1979.tb01898.x|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In August 1948, an expedition to [[Lufeng, Yunnan|Lufeng]] in [[Yunnan]], China yielded a {{Convert|1|in|cm|-long|adj=mid}} skull. It was shortly sent to Beijing (then Peking) and then eventually sent out of China, and deposited with Kenneth Kermack at [[University College London]] in 1960. The specimen was preliminarily described in 1963 by Harold W. Rigney, who noted the similarity to ''Morganucodon'' from Britain, and considered it cogeneric, naming the new species ''Morganucodon oehleri'' in honor of the reverend Edgar T. Oehler, who had originally collected the specimen.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rigney|first=Harold W.|date=March 1963|title=A Specimen of Morganucodon from Yunnan|url=http://www.nature.com/articles/1971122a0|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=197|issue=4872|pages=1122–1123|doi=10.1038/1971122a0|bibcode=1963Natur.197.1122R|s2cid=4204736|issn=0028-0836|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In 1978 [[Yang Zhongjian|C. C. Young]] described ''[[Eozostrodon]] heikuopengensis'' from the Hei Koa Peng locality near Lufeng, based on an associated skull and dentary, as well as a right maxilla and associated dentary.<ref>C.-C. Young. 1978. New materials of Eozostrodon. ''Vertebrata PalAsiatica'' '''16''':1-3</ref> A revision by [[William A. Clemens Jr.|William A. Clemens]] in 1979 assigned this species to ''Morganucodon,'' based on its close similarity to the two previously named species.<ref name=":1"/> In 1980 Clemens named the species ''Morganucodon peyeri'', from isolated teeth found in Late Triassic ([[Rhaetian]]) deposits near [[Hallau]], Switzerland, with the species being named after paleontologist [[Bernhard Peyer]].<ref>W. A. Clemens. 1980. [https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/Zitteliana_5_0051-0092.pdf Rhaeto-Liassic mammals from Switzerland and West Germany]. ''Zitteliana'' '''5''':51-92</ref> In 1981, Kermack, Mussett and Rigney published an extensive monograph on the skull of ''Morganucodon''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kermack|first1=K. A.|last2=Mussett|first2=Frances|last3=Rigney|first3=H. W.|date=January 1981|title=The skull of Morganucodon|url=https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article-lookup/doi/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1981.tb01127.x|journal=Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society|language=en|volume=71|issue=1|pages=1–158|doi=10.1111/j.1096-3642.1981.tb01127.x|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In 2016 [[Percy M. Butler|Percy Butler]] and [[Denise Sigogneau-Russell]] named the species ''Morganucodon tardus'' from an upper right molar (M34984) collected from the Watton Cliff locality near [[Eype]] in [[Dorset]], England, dating to the late [[Bathonian]] stage of the [[Middle Jurassic]]. The species being named after the Latin ''tardus'', late, in reference to it being the youngest member of the genus.<ref>Butler, P.M. and Sigogneau-Russell, D. 2016. Diversity of triconodonts in the Middle Jurassic of Great Britain. Palaeontologia Polonica 67, 35–65. LSID urn:lsid:zoobank.org: pub: C4D90BB6-A001-4DDB-890E-2061B4793992</ref>