Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T14:44:23.116Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bridging the transition between Didelphodonts and Taeniodonts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Jaelyn J. Eberle
Jaelyn J. Eberle*
Affiliation:
Houston Museum of Natural Science, One Hermann Circle Dr., Houston, TX 77030-1799
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The largest documented cimolestid, Alveugena carbonensis new genus and species, is both morphologically and temporally intermediate between small, early cimolestids (such as Procerberus and Cimolestes) and the earliest documented conoryctid taeniodont Onychodectes tisonensis; this represents a transition between the suborders Didelphodonta and Taeniodonta. Diagnosis and description of A. carbonensis is based upon a partial skull and two isolated upper molars recovered from fluvial sandstones at UW locality V-91005, in upper parts of the Ferris Formation, western Hanna Basin, Wyoming. An earliest middle Puercan age for UW locality V-91005 is based upon: presence of taxa that are morphologically intermediate between characteristic early and middle Puercan species; presence of a species of Ectoconus morphologically more primitive than Ectoconus ditrigonus; and co-occurrence of taxa characteristic of Pu1 and Pu2 stratigraphically below and above it. Morphologic trends in evolution of the upper dentition of cimolestids reflect a relative broadening of the crown. A trend toward increasing body size amongst Puercan cimolestids appears to have coincided with a change from a carnivorous (or perhaps insectivorous) to an omnivorous diet, suggested by increased grinding function of the cheek teeth. Cladistic analyses support A. carbonensis as the sister group to O. tisonensis. No known autapomorphies preclude A. carbonensis from having been a plausible ancestor to O. tisonensis.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 73 , Issue 5 , September 1999 , pp. 936 - 944
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Archibald, J. D. 1982. A study of Mammalia and geology across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary in Garfield County, Montana. University of California Publications in Geological Sciences, 122, 286 p.Google Scholar
Archibald, J. D., Clemens, W. A. Jr., Gingerich, P. D., Krause, D. W., Lindsay, E. H., and Rose, K. D. 1987. First North American Land Mammal Ages of the Cenozoic Era, p. 24–76. In Woodburne, M. O. (ed.), Cenozoic Mammals of North America: Geochronology and Biostratigraphy. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Clemens, W. A. Jr. 1973. Fossil mammals of the type Lance Formation, Wyoming, Pt. III, Eutheria and Summary. University of California, Publications in the Geological Sciences, 94:1–102.Google Scholar
Cope, E. D. 1887. The Origin of the Fittest. D. Appleton and Co., New York, 467 p.Google Scholar
Eberle, J. J. 1996. Lancian and Puercan mammalian biostratigraphy, systematics, and evolution in the western Hanna Basin, south-central Wyoming. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wyoming, Laramie, 400 p.Google Scholar
Eberle, J. J., and Lillegraven, J. A. 1998a. A new important record of earliest Cenozoic mammalian history: geologic setting, Multituberculata, and Peradectia. Rocky Mountain Geology, 33:3–47.Google Scholar
Eberle, J. J. 1998b. A new important record of earliest Cenozoic mammalian history: Eutheria and paleogeographic/biostratigraphic summaries. Rocky Mountain Geology, 33:49–117.Google Scholar
Kermack, K. A., Ussett, F., and Rigney, H. W. 1981. The skull of Morganucodon. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 71:1–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kielan-Jaworowska, Z., Bown, T. M., and Lillegraven, J. A. 1979. Eutheria, p. 221–258. In Lillegraven, J. A., Kielan-Jaworowska, Z., and Clemens, W. A. Jr. (eds.), Mesozoic Mammals: The First Twothirds of Mammalian History. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Lillegraven, J. A. 1969. Latest Cretaceous mammals of upper part of Edmonton Formation of Alberta, and review of marsupial-placental dichotomy in mammalian evolution. The University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions, 50 (Vertebrata 12), 122 p.Google Scholar
Lillegraven, J. A., and Krusat, G. 1991. Cranio-mandibular anatomy of Haldanodon exspectatus (Docodonta; Mammalia) from the Late Jurassic of Portugal and its implications to the evolution of mammalian characters. Contributions to Geology, University of Wyoming, 28:39–138.Google Scholar
Lillegraven, J. A., and McKenna, M. C. 1986. Fossil mammals from the “Mesaverde” Formation (Late Cretaceous, Judithian) of the Bighorn and Wind River basins, Wyoming, with definitions of Late Cretaceous North American Land-Mammal “Ages.” American Museum Novitates, 2840, 68 p.Google Scholar
Lillegraven, J. A., and Snoke, A. W. 1996. A new look at the Laramide orogeny in the Seminoe and Shirley mountains, Freezeout Hills, and Hanna Basin, south-central Wyoming. Geological Survey of Wyoming Public Information Circular, 36, 56 p.Google Scholar
Lofgren, D. L. 1995. The Bug Creek Problem and the Cretaceous-Tertiary Transition at McGuire Creek, Montana. University of California Publications in Geological Sciences, 140, 185 p.Google Scholar
Matthew, W. D. 1937. Paleocene faunas of the San Juan Basin, New Mexico. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 30, 510 p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKenna, M. C. 1975. Toward a phylogenetic classification of the Mammalia, p. 21–46. In Luckett, W. P. and Szalay, F. S. (eds.), Phylogeny of the Primates. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKenna, M. C., and Bell, S. K. 1997. Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. Columbia University Press, New York, 631 p.Google Scholar
Middleton, M. D. 1983. Early Paleocene vertebrates of the Denver Basin, Colorado. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Colorado, Boulder, 404 p.Google Scholar
Robison, S. F. 1986. Paleocene (Puercan-Torrejonian) mammalian faunas of the North Horn Formation, Central Utah. Brigham Young University Geology Studies, 33:87–133.Google Scholar
Schoch, R. M. 1982. Phylogeny, classification and paleobiology of the Taeniodonta (Mammalia: Eutheria). Third North American Paleontology Convention Proceedings, 2:465–470.Google Scholar
Schoch, R. M. 1986. Systematics, functional morphology, and macroevolution of the extinct mammalian order Taeniodonta. Peabody Museum Bulletin, 42:1–307.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G. 1931. A new classification of mammals. American Museum of Natural History Bulletin, 59:259–293.Google Scholar
Sloan, R. E., and Van Valen, L. 1965. Cretaceous mammals from Montana. Science, 148:220–227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stanley, S. M. 1973. An explanation of Cope's rule. Evolution, 27:1–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Szaley, F. S. 1977. Phylogenetic relationships and a classification of the eutherian Mammalia, p. 315–374. In Hecht, M. K., Goody, P. C., and Hecht, B. M. (eds.), Major Patterns in Vertebrate Evolution. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swisher, C. C., Dingus, L., and Butler, R. F. 1993. 40Ar/39Ar dating and magnetostratigraphic correlation of the terrestrial Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary and Puercan Mammal Age, Hell Creek-Tullock formations, eastern Montana. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 30:1981–1996.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swofford, D. L. 1991. PAUP: Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony, Version 3.1 Computer program distributed by the Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, Illinois.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L. 1966. Deltatheridia, a new order of mammals. American Museum of Natural History Bulletin, 132:1–126.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L. 1978. The beginning of the age of mammals. Evolutionary Theory, 4:45–80.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. E. 1996. The beginning of the Age of Mammals in the San Juan Basin, New Mexico: Biostratigraphy and evolution of Paleocene mammals of the Nacimiento Formation. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 8:1–141.Google Scholar
Winge, H. 1917. Udsigt over Insektaedernes indbyrdes Slaegtskab. Vidensk. Meddel. Dansk Naturh. Foren., 68:83–203.Google Scholar
Wood, H. E., Chaney, R. W., Clark, J., Colbert, E. H., Jepsen, G. L., Reeside, J. B. Jr., and Stock, C. 1941. Nomenclature and correlation of the North American continental Tertiary. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 52:1–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar