Article: A Middle Jurassic mammal bed from Oxfordshire

The geology, palaeoecology, and vertebrate fauna of a mammaliferous sediment in the Forest Marble of Oxfordshire are described, as are the techniques used in its processing. The mammalian fossils appear to have been derived from the faeces of predatory animals, probably small theropods, the occurrence of theropod teeth possibly having value in the search for new Mesozoic mammal localities. In the mammal (s.l.) fauna from the new site there occur late representatives of the Morganucodontidae (Wareolestes rex gen. et sp. nov.), Kuehneotheriidae (Cyrtla-therium canei gen. et sp. nov.), and Tritylodontidae, as well as the earliest known members of the families Dryolestidae and (?)Peramuridae (Palaeoxonodon ooliticus Freeman, 1976). The holotype of the (?)peramurid appears to show an early stage in the development of the talonid basin. The first known upper molars of Middle Jurassic representatives of the suborders Amphitheria and Docodonta are described and illustrated, as are the positions of the wear facets thereon. The mammals now appear to have diversified at the level of the family long before the Bathonian, and probably during the early Jurassic.