It is a member of the extinct order Multituberculata. It lies within the suborder Cimolodonta and is a member of the superfamily Djadochtatherioidea. The genus Bulganbaatar was named by Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska in 1974 after the village of Bulgan situated near Bayn Dzak.[1]
It is one of many Cretaceous aged mammal discoveries made by Kielan-Jaworowska and co-workers from Central Asian sites. Kielan-Jaworowska considered B.nemegtbaatorides to be the ancestor to the genus Nemegtbaatar due to similarity but more derived teeth in the latter, hence the names.[2] According to Kielan-Jaworowska and Hurum, both Bulganbaatar and Nemegtbaatar are distinctive for exhibiting "elongation of the last
upper premolar and molars, and an increase in their cusp numbers."[3]
Fossil remains of Bulganbaatar have been found in Upper Cretaceous-aged strata of the Djadokhta Formation of Mongolia and Kazakhstan.[4][5] Their appearances range between 84 to 81 Million years ago, from the late Santonian to the early Campanian ages.[6][7]
Kielan-Jaworowska, Zofia (1974). "Multituberculate succession in the Late Cretaceous of the Gobi Desert (Mongolia)". Palaeontologica Polonica. 30: 23–44.
Wilson, Gregory P.; Evans, Alistair R.; Corfe, Ian J.; Smits, Peter D.; Fortelius, Mikael; Jernvall, Jukka (2012). "Adaptive radiation of multituberculate mammals before the extinction of dinosaurs". Nature. 483: 457–460. doi:10.1038/nature10880.
