Exceptionally preserved North American Paleogene metatherians: adaptations and discovery of a major gap in the opossum fossil record

Author:

Sánchez-Villagra Marcelo1,Ladevèze Sandrine2,Horovitz Inés3,Argot Christine2,Hooker Jeremy J4,Macrini Thomas E5,Martin Thomas6,Moore-Fay Scott4,de Muizon Christian2,Schmelzle Thomas7,Asher Robert J8

Affiliation:

1. Palaeontologisches Institut und MuseumKarl Schmid-Strasse 4, 8006 Zürich, Switzerland

2. Département Histoire de la TerreMuséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris 75005, France

3. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of CaliforniaLos Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA

4. Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History MuseumLondon SW7 5BD, UK

5. American Museum of Natural History, MammalogyNew York, NY 10024, USA

6. Institut für Paläontologie, Universität Bonn53115 Bonn, Germany

7. Department of Biology II, University of MunichMunich 82152, Germany

8. Museum of Zoology, Cambridge UniversityCambridge CB2 3EJ, UK

Abstract

A major gap in our knowledge of the evolution of marsupial mammals concerns the Paleogene of the northern continents, a critical time and place to link the early history of metatherians in Asia and North America with the more recent diversification in South America and Australia. We studied new exceptionally well-preserved partial skeletons of the Early Oligocene fossilHerpetotheriumfrom the White River Formation in Wyoming, which allowed us to test the relationships of this taxon and examine its adaptations. Herpetotheriidae, with a fossil record extending from the Cretaceous to the Miocene, has traditionally been allied with opossums (Didelphidae) based on fragmentary material, mainly dentitions. Analysis of the new material reveals that several aspects of the cranial and postcranial anatomy, some of which suggests a terrestrial lifestyle, distinguishHerpetotheriumfrom opossums. We found thatHerpetotheriumis the sister group to the crown group Marsupialia and is not a stem didelphid. Combination of the new palaeontological data with molecular divergence estimates, suggests the presence of a long undocumented gap in the fossil record of opossums extending some 45 Myr from the Early Miocene to the Cretaceous.

Publisher

The Royal Society

Subject

General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous)

Reference17 articles.

1. 6. Eocene-Oligocene Climatic Change in North America: The White River Formation near Douglas, East-Central Wyoming

2. Goin F. J. Candela A. M. 2004 New Paleogene marsupials from the Amazonian basin. In The Paleogene mammalian fauna of Santa Rosa vol. 40 (ed. K. E. Campbell). Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Science Series pp. 15–16. Los Angeles CA: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

3. Goin F. J. Abello A. Bellosi E. Kay R. F. Madden R. H. & Carlini A. A. In press. Los Metatheria sudamericanos de comienzos del Neógeno. Ameghiniana .

4. The tarsus ofUkhaatherium nessovi(Eutheria, Mammalia) from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia: an appraisal of the evolution of the ankle in basal therians

5. Out of the Tropics: Evolutionary Dynamics of the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient

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