1
|
Beck RM, Voss RS, Jansa SA. Craniodental Morphology and Phylogeny of Marsupials. BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 2022. [DOI: 10.1206/0003-0090.457.1.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Robin M.D. Beck
- School of Science, Engineering and Environment University of Salford, U.K. School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences University of New South Wales, Australia Division of Vertebrate Zoology (Mammalogy) American Museum of Natural History
| | - Robert S. Voss
- Division of Vertebrate Zoology (Mammalogy) American Museum of Natural History
| | - Sharon A. Jansa
- Bell Museum and Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior University of Minnesota
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Archer M, Hand SJ, Black KH, Beck RMD, Arena DA, Wilson LAB, Kealy S, Hung TT. A new family of bizarre durophagous carnivorous marsupials from Miocene deposits in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland. Sci Rep 2016; 6:26911. [PMID: 27229325 PMCID: PMC4882580 DOI: 10.1038/srep26911] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2016] [Accepted: 05/09/2016] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
A new specimen of the bizarrely specialised Malleodectes mirabilis from middle Miocene deposits in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area provides the first and only information about the molar dentition of this strange group of extinct marsupials. Apart from striking autapomorphies such as the enormous P3, other dental features such as stylar cusp D being larger than B suggest it belongs in the Order Dasyuromorphia. Phylogenetic analysis of 62 craniodental characters places Malleodectes within Dasyuromorphia albeit with weak support and without indication of specific relationships to any of the three established families (Dasyuridae, Myrmecobiidae and Thylacinidae). Accordingly we have allocated Malleodectes to the new family, Malleodectidae. Some features suggest potential links to previously named dasyuromorphians from Riversleigh (e.g., Ganbulanyi) but these are too poorly known to test this possibility. Although the original interpretation of a steeply declining molar row in Malleodectes can be rejected, it continues to seem likely that malleodectids specialised on snails but probably also consumed a wider range of prey items including small vertebrates. Whatever their actual diet, malleodectids appear to have filled a niche in Australia’s rainforests that has not been occupied by any other mammal group anywhere in the world from the Miocene onwards.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- M Archer
- PANGEA Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth &Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - S J Hand
- PANGEA Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth &Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - K H Black
- PANGEA Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth &Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - R M D Beck
- PANGEA Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth &Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia.,School of Environmental &Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK
| | - D A Arena
- PANGEA Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth &Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - L A B Wilson
- PANGEA Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth &Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - S Kealy
- Department of Archaeology and Natural History, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, ACT 2601, Australia
| | - T-T Hung
- Biological Resources Imaging Laboratory, Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, University of New South Wales 2052, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Sánchez-Villagra MR. Why are There Fewer Marsupials than Placentals? On the Relevance of Geography and Physiology to Evolutionary Patterns of Mammalian Diversity and Disparity. J MAMM EVOL 2012. [DOI: 10.1007/s10914-012-9220-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
|
4
|
Meredith RW, Westerman M, Springer MS. A phylogeny and timescale for the living genera of kangaroos and kin (Macropodiformes:Marsupialia) based on nuclear DNA sequences. AUST J ZOOL 2008. [DOI: 10.1071/zo08044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 87] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Kangaroos and kin (Macropodiformes) are the most conspicuous elements of the Australasian marsupial fauna. The approximately 70 living species can be divided into three families: (1) Hypsiprymnodontidae (the musky rat kangaroo); (2) Potoroidae (potoroos and bettongs); and (3) Macropodidae (larger kangaroos, wallabies, banded hare wallaby and pademelons). Here we examine macropodiform relationships using protein-coding portions of the ApoB, BRCA1, IRBP, Rag1 and vWF genes via maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods. We estimate times of divergence using two different relaxed molecular clock methods to present a timescale for macropodiform evolution and reconstruct ancestral states for grades of dental organisation. We find robust support for a basal split between Hypsiprymnodontidae and the other macropodiforms, potoroid monophyly and macropodid monophyly, with Lagostrophus as the sister-taxon to all other macropodids. Our divergence estimates suggest that kangaroos diverged from Phalangeroidea in the early Eocene, that crown-group Macropodiformes originated in the late Eocene or early Oligocene and that the potoroid–macropodid split occurred in the late Oligocene or early Miocene followed by rapid cladogenesis within these families 5 to 15 million years ago. These divergence estimates coincide with major geological and ecological changes in Australia. Ancestral state reconstructions for grades of dental organisation suggest that the grazer grade evolved independently on two different occasions within Macropodidae.
Collapse
|
5
|
Ontogeny and homology of the dentition in dasyurid marsupials: Development inSminthopsis virginiae. J MAMM EVOL 1996. [DOI: 10.1007/bf02077449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
|