Plesiochoffatia is an extinct mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

 of the Upper Jurassic

Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to  Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...

. It was a relatively early member of the also extinct order Multituberculata

Multituberculata

The Multituberculata were a group of rodent-like mammals that existed for approximately one hundred and twenty million years—the longest fossil history of any mammal lineage—but were eventually outcompeted by rodents, becoming extinct during the early Oligocene. At least 200 species are...

. It was a resident of Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 during the "age of the dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

s." It's in the suborder "Plagiaulacida

Plagiaulacida

Plagiaulacida is a group of extinct multituberculate mammals. Multituberculates were among the most common mammals of the Mesozoic, "the age of the dinosaurs"...

" and family Paulchoffatiidae

Paulchoffatiidae

Paulchoffatiidae is a family of extinct mammals that lived predominantly during the Upper Jurassic period, though a couple of genera are known from the earliest Cretaceous. Some undescribed fossils from the Middle Jurassic of England may represent earlier versions. Remains have been reported from...

.

The genus Plesiochoffatia ("near Choffatia") was named by Hahn G. and Hahn R. in 1999. It has also been known as Parachoffatia ("beside Choffatia") Hahn & Hahn, 1998 (preoccupied).

Remains have been found in the Kimmeridgian (Upper Jurassic)-age strata

Stratum

In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers...

 of Guimarota

Guimarota

Guimarota is a disused coal mine that contains a diverse array of fossil animals and plants from the Upper Jurassic, Kimmeridgian period. It is located in central Portugal, near the city of Leiria....

, Portugal. Three species were described in the same study under the name of Parachoffatia; (P. peparethos, P. staphylos and P. thoas). As something else had already been given that name, the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

was rechristened a year later.