Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- 1 Rodentia: a model order?
- 2 A synopsis of rodent molecular phylogenetics, systematics and biogeography
- 3 Emerging perspectives on some Paleogene sciurognath rodents in Laurasia: the fossil record and its interpretation
- 4 Phylogeny and evolutionary history of hystricognathous rodents from the Old World during the Tertiary: new insights into the emergence of modern “phiomorph” families
- 5 The history of South American octodontoid rodents and its contribution to evolutionary generalisations
- 6 History, taxonomy and palaeobiology of giant fossil rodents (Hystricognathi, Dinomyidae)
- 7 Advances in integrative taxonomy and evolution of African murid rodents: how morphological trees hide the molecular forest
- 8 Themes and variation in sciurid evolution
- 9 Marmot evolution and global change in the past 10 million years
- 10 Grades and clades among rodents: the promise of geometric morphometrics
- 11 Biogeographic variations in wood mice: testing for the role of morphological variation as a line of least resistance to evolution
- 12 The oral apparatus of rodents: variations on the theme of a gnawing machine
- 13 The muscles of mastication in rodents and the function of the medial pterygoid
- 14 Functional morphology of rodent middle ears
- 15 Variations and anomalies in rodent teeth and their importance for testing computational models of development
- 16 The great variety of dental structures and dynamics in rodents: new insights into their ecological diversity
- 17 Convergent evolution of molar topography in Muroidea (Rodentia, Mammalia): connections between chewing movements and crown morphology
- 18 Developmental mechanisms in the evolution of phenotypic traits in rodent teeth
- 19 Diversity and evolution of femoral variation in Ctenohystrica
- 20 Morphological disparity of the postcranial skeleton in rodents and its implications for palaeobiological inferences: the case of the extinct Theridomyidae (Rodentia, Mammalia)
- Index
- References
5 - The history of South American octodontoid rodents and its contribution to evolutionary generalisations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- 1 Rodentia: a model order?
- 2 A synopsis of rodent molecular phylogenetics, systematics and biogeography
- 3 Emerging perspectives on some Paleogene sciurognath rodents in Laurasia: the fossil record and its interpretation
- 4 Phylogeny and evolutionary history of hystricognathous rodents from the Old World during the Tertiary: new insights into the emergence of modern “phiomorph” families
- 5 The history of South American octodontoid rodents and its contribution to evolutionary generalisations
- 6 History, taxonomy and palaeobiology of giant fossil rodents (Hystricognathi, Dinomyidae)
- 7 Advances in integrative taxonomy and evolution of African murid rodents: how morphological trees hide the molecular forest
- 8 Themes and variation in sciurid evolution
- 9 Marmot evolution and global change in the past 10 million years
- 10 Grades and clades among rodents: the promise of geometric morphometrics
- 11 Biogeographic variations in wood mice: testing for the role of morphological variation as a line of least resistance to evolution
- 12 The oral apparatus of rodents: variations on the theme of a gnawing machine
- 13 The muscles of mastication in rodents and the function of the medial pterygoid
- 14 Functional morphology of rodent middle ears
- 15 Variations and anomalies in rodent teeth and their importance for testing computational models of development
- 16 The great variety of dental structures and dynamics in rodents: new insights into their ecological diversity
- 17 Convergent evolution of molar topography in Muroidea (Rodentia, Mammalia): connections between chewing movements and crown morphology
- 18 Developmental mechanisms in the evolution of phenotypic traits in rodent teeth
- 19 Diversity and evolution of femoral variation in Ctenohystrica
- 20 Morphological disparity of the postcranial skeleton in rodents and its implications for palaeobiological inferences: the case of the extinct Theridomyidae (Rodentia, Mammalia)
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
The peculiar New World hystricomorph rodents comprise about half of the mammal species of South America (Upham and Patterson, 2012) and have been evolving in this continent for over 40 Ma (Antoine et al., 2012). During this period, they developed an ecomorphological diversity much greater than that of other rodent clades, even when only the extant fauna is considered (Mares and Ojeda, 1982; Wilson and Sánchez-Villagra, 2010; Hautier et al., 2012). This results especially from the evolution of particular morphologies in three of the four suprafamilial clades, Erethizontoidea (New World porcupines), Chinchilloidea (viscachas), and Cavioidea (maras and cavies), a pattern that begins to be apparent in the Oligocene fossil record (Wood and Patterson, 1959; Bertrand et al., 2012). In contrast, the superfamily Octodontoidea has remained morphologically conservative for much longer, the rodents of this group being unique among South American hystricomorphs in retaining a rat-like appearance (e.g. Redford and Eisenberg, 1992: pl. 17; Eisenberg and Redford, 1999: pl. 13). Remarkably, when considered in combination with their apparently narrower range of morphological innovation, Octodontoidea is the most diverse clade of hystricomorph rodents. In particular, the families Echimyidae and Octodontidae (including the subfamily Ctenomyinae, considered by neontologists as a family in their own right; see Verzi et al. 2014) comprise more than 60% of the extant species of South American hystricomorphs, and have the richest fossil record of the suborder (McKenna and Bell, 1997; Woods and Kilpatrick, 2005; Upham and Patterson, 2012).
The sister families Echimyidae and Octodontidae are two living clades with very different characteristics in terms of geographical distribution and diversity patterns. Echimyidae encompasses a high diversity (i.e. species richness) of small- to middle-sized rodents, with arboreal (spiny tree-rats, tree rats, bamboo rats), or terrestrial to fossorial (spiny rats) lifestyles, which occupy Amazonian, coastal and Andean tropical forests in northern South America, and occasionally more open, xeric habitats in the Cerrado and Caatinga (Eisenberg and Redford, 1999; Emmons and Feer, 1999).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Evolution of the RodentsAdvances in Phylogeny, Functional Morphology and Development, pp. 139 - 163Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
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