Adelobazileus

Adelobazileus ( Latin: Adelobasileus , from other Greek ἄδηλος βασιλεύς “the obscure king”) is an extinct proto-mammal of the late Triassic period (about 225 million years ago). A predator about the size of a mouse.

Known for one skull found in Texas in 1989 by paleontologists from the Museum of Natural History and Science of New Mexico, where the find is stored. The structural features of the skull, especially the structure of the inner ear, indicate that Adelobazileus was a transitional form between cynodonts and Triassic mammals.

Adelobazileus lived about 10 million years earlier than the most evolutionally advanced cynodonts and all other known . This suggests that he could be a common ancestor of mammals, or, more likely, was closely related to a common ancestor of mammals.

Phylogeny ^[2]