Leptictidium

Extinct genus of mammals

Leptictidium is an extinct genus of small mammals that were likely bipedal. Comprising eight species, they resembled today's bilbies, bandicoots, and elephant shrews, and occupied a similar niche. They are especially interesting for their combination of characteristics typical of primitive eutherians with highly specialized adaptations, such as powerful hind legs and a long tail which aided in locomotion. They were omnivorous, their diet a combination of insects, lizards, frogs, and small mammals. Leptictidium and other leptictids are not placentals, but are non-placental eutherians, although they are closely related to placental eutherians. They appeared in the Lower Eocene, a time of warm temperatures and high humidity, roughly fifty million years ago. Although they were widespread throughout Europe, they became extinct around thirty-five million years ago with no descendants, as they were adapted to live in forest ecosystems and were unable to adapt to the open plains of the Oligocene.

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