Henkelotherium is an extinct genus ofdryolestidan mammal from the Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian)Camadas de Guimarota, in Portugal.[1] Unlike many other Jurassic mammals, it is known from a largely complete skeleton, and is thought to have had anarboreal lifestyle.
Primitive characters ofHenkelotherium (e.g. asymmetric condyles of the femur) indicate that this species had a mode of locomotion similar totree shrews andopossums. The small size ofHenkelotherium and elongated tail made it suited to an arboreal lifestyle and capable of climbing trees, a notion supported by the paleoecological reconstruction of the Guimarota ecosystem indicating a densely vegetated environment.[3][4] Based on its late growth of jaws and it possessing additional molars that erupted after antemolar replacement was completed,Henkelotherium is believed to have had a long lifespan, a slower life history, or a combination of the two.[5]
In cladistic analyses,Henkelotherium has been considered closely related toDryolestidae, either as a part of that group, or as closely related but placed outside that family as a non-dryolestiddryolestidan.[6]
^Krebs B., 1991. Das Skelett von Henkelotherium guimarotae gen. et sp. nov. (Eupantotheria, Mammalia) aus dem Oberen Jura von Portugal.Berl Geowiss Abh A.: 133:1–110.
^Vázquez-Molinero, R., Martin, T., Fischer, M. S. and Frey, R. (2001), Comparative anatomical investigations of the postcranial skeleton of Henkelotherium guimarotae Krebs, 1991 (Eupantotheria, Mammalia) and their implications for its locomotion. Zool. Reihe, 77: 207–216. doi: 10.1002/mmnz.20010770206
Ramón Vázquez Molinero: Comparative anatomy of Henkelotherium guimarotae (Holotheria), a late Jurassic small mammal, and its relevance for the evolution of the mode of locomotion of modern mammals. Dissertation. Freie Universität Berlin, Fachbereich Geowissenschaften, 2003. Dissertation Online
