FC Deltatheridium

    Deltatheridium is a small, approximately 6 inch long Basal Metatherian. Despite its tiny size, it surely wasn't an animal a small dinosaur would want to come across. Its teeth were gnarly and make modern opossum teeth look cute. And it surely left its mark in the fossil record in the form of trace fossils. Precisely, the mangled skull of Archaeornithoides. The holotype, which mostly consists of maxillary bone and dentary shows that the animal did not have a pleasing end. A puncture wound in the maxilla matched the teeth of a weasel sized Deltatheridiid. And what Deltatheridiid happened to be a contemporary with Archaeornithoides? Deltatheridium. 

    Funny story, on a voice call with the other devs, I brought up "Delta" and while me and Adamsaurus02 were looking at the teeth, I basically compared it to a stoat, killing anything, including larger animals like the cold blooded demon it is. And what do you know...

    Anyhow. Due to the fact that Deltatheridiids (and -oids)are absolutely, atrociously, terrible at preserving post crania material (I literally call them Floating Heads), reconstructing its body was a living hell. However, the fact that it was a basal METATHERIAN helped out a lot. I used Didelphis virginiana and Monodelphis domestica as references, along with the extinct metatherian, Sinodelphys. I used browns and peaches a lot to reflect it being a desert hunter, with black and white eye spots to scare off predators. The the eye stripe is similar to what Cheetahs have, helping reduce glare. 

References:

- Gregory, W. Simpson, G.G.. (1926). "Cretaceous Mammal Skulls From Mongolia". digitallibrary.amnh.org/bitstream/handle/2246/3193/N0225.pdf?sequence=1 . The American Museum of Natural History

-Elżanowski, A. Wellnhoffer, P. (1993). "Skull of Archaeornithoides From the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia". earth.geology.yale.edu/~ajs/1993/11.1993.08Elzanowski.pdf . American Journal of Science