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Metaphiomys (Rodentia: Phiomyidae) from the paleogene of southwestern Tanzania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Nancy J. Stevens ,
Patrick M. O'Connor ,
Michael D. Gottfried ,
Eric M. Roberts ,
Sifael Ngasala  and
Mary R. Dawson
Nancy J. Stevens*
Affiliation:
Department of Biomedical Sciences, 228 Irvine Hall, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Ohio University, Athens 45701
Patrick M. O'Connor
Affiliation:
Department of Biomedical Sciences, 228 Irvine Hall, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Ohio University, Athens 45701
Michael D. Gottfried
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences and Michigan State University Museum, West Circle Drive, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824
Eric M. Roberts
Affiliation:
School of Geosciences, University of Witwatersrand, Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa
Sifael Ngasala
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Mary R. Dawson
Affiliation:
Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 4400 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
*
∗Corresponding author, email <[email protected]>
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Extract

The evolutionary history of the living African rodent families is a topic of considerable debate, yet it is generally agreed that the modern cane rats (Thryonomys Fitzinger, 1867) and dassie rats (Petromus Smith, 1831) have an evolutionary history within the infraorder Phiomorpha (e.g., Wood, 1968). Phiomorphs possess hystricognathous mandibular morphology, multiserial incisor enamel, and hystricomorphous attachment of the masseteric musculature (e.g., Lavocat, 1978; Holroyd, 1994). In his initial work on the group, Wood (1968) placed all phiomorph taxa into a single family, and named a handful of morphologically diverse species based mainly on size. Lavocat (1978) later revised the taxonomy of the group, raising many of the differences among species to the family level. More recently, Holroyd (1994) observed that these contrasting views likely stemmed from the fact that Wood's phiomorph work emphasized the overall similarity of Paleogene specimens from the Fayum of Egypt, whereas Lavocat endeavored to explain the diverse Miocene rodent faunas from East Africa, envisioning that each of the Miocene forms had an ancestor among the Paleogene taxa. In this paper we adopt Holroyd's (1994) revised version of family-level relationships among the phiomorphs.

Type
Paleontological Notes
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 80 , Issue 2 , March 2006 , pp. 407 - 409
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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