OBJECT DOSSIER · SMITHSONIAN OPEN ACCESS

Early mammal or mammal relative — Haramiyavia clemmenseni

SAGE Museum Deep Time scientific dossier

Artist / Creator

Zhe-Xi Luo, Illustration by April Neander

Date / Period

Late Triassic — Rhaetian · Early Rhaetian, Late Triassic.

Object Type

jaw casts

Medium

unknown_needs_review

About This Object

Geologic period: Late Triassic — Rhaetian

Age: Early Rhaetian, Late Triassic.

Feeding: Tooth wear and occlusion indicate an omnivorous or herbivorous feeding adaptation.

Locomotion: Not directly established by the jaw casts.

Body plan: Small mammaliaform known especially from jaws, teeth and associated skeletal material.

Evidence: Jaw anatomy, tooth structure, wear facets and CT-based reconstruction of occlusion provide direct and analytical evidence for its feeding system.

Why it matters: Haramiyavia preserves a transitional combination of mammaliaform jaw and dental features and helps scientists study the evolutionary experiments occurring near the origin of mammals.

Plain Language Identity: A Late Triassic haramiyidan mammaliaform from East Greenland, close to the evolutionary origin of mammals but not necessarily inside crown Mammalia.

What You Are Looking At: Casts representing jaw material and complex multi-cusped teeth of Haramiyavia clemmenseni.

Ecosystem: Late Triassic terrestrial ecosystem of East Greenland.

Preservation: Visitor display uses jaw casts based on fossil material.

Find Location: East Greenland.

Formation: Fleming Fjord Formation, Tait Bjerg Beds.

Research History: Haramiyid relationships have been debated. Detailed studies of Haramiyavia have supported placement among stem mammaliaforms outside crown Mammalia, while other analyses of haramiyidans have produced competing results.

Open Questions: Do not call Haramiyavia a modern-style mammal or imply that its exact position on the mammal family tree is universally settled.

Source Urls: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour/current-exhibits/deep-time-virtual-tour-fossil-list; https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4697399/; https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7604429/

Enrichment Method: SAGE curated research pass; title and scientific name matched; chronology and lineage distinctions retained; evidence separated from inference

Scientific name: Haramiyavia clemmenseni

Evidence / representation: comparative_taxon_visual

Why It Is In This SAGE Exhibit

comparative_taxon_visual

Rise of the Dinosaurs: A New World After Catastrophe.

Provenance

Smithsonian Deep Time source scene: Reptiles Move Back to the Ocean in the Jurassic

Visual source institution: Wikimedia Commons

Exhibition History

Included in the SAGE Museum Dinosaurs & Deep Time staging exhibit.

Collection & Credit

Media license: CC BY 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Subjects & Themes

Haramiyavia clemmenseni Late Triassic — Rhaetian jaw casts Reptiles Move Back to the Ocean in the Jurassic Rise of the Dinosaurs

ORIGINAL COLLECTION SOURCE

This object page stays inside SAGE Museum. The Smithsonian link below is provided only as the original scholarly collection record. It opens separately.

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