Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T18:26:05.163Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fossil evidence for the origin of behavioral strategies in early Miocene Castoridae, and their role in the evolution of the family

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Marguerite Hugueney  and
François Escuillié
Marguerite Hugueney
Affiliation:
Centre de Paléontologie stratigraphique et de Paléoécologie de l'Université Claude-Bernard-Lyon I, associé au Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (UMR 5565), 27-43 boulevard du 11 novembre, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France
François Escuillié
Affiliation:
Rhinopolis, 2 route de Moulins, 03800 Gannat, France
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Steneofiber, an early Miocene European beaver, showed evidence of a K-strategy model of reproduction and important morphological modifications for better adaptation to a semiaquatic way of life. At the same time, a North American branch of Castoridae developed not only a parental care system but also a series of cranial and postcranial osteological adaptations to a burrowing way of life. As the North American and the European Castoridae evolved independently from each other for at least fifteen m.y., these behavioral trends seem to have been inherent in the family for a long time and have apparently promoted, up to the present time, the spread of semiaquatic forms on the two continents; on the contrary, the burrowing branch of the Castoridae rapidly vanished.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , Fall 1996 , pp. 507 - 513
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

Literature Cited

Bucher, H., Ginsburg, L., and Cheneval, J. 1985. Nouvelles données et interprétations sur la formation des gisements de vertébrés aquitaniens de Saint-Gérand-le-Puy. Geobios 18:823–832.Google Scholar
de Bruijn, H., Daams, R., Daxner-Höck, G., Fahlbuch, V., Ginsburg, L., Mein, P., and Morales, J. 1992. Report of the RCMNS working group on fossil mammals, Reisensburg 1990. Newsletters on Stratigraphy 26:65–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Filhol, H. 1879. Etude des Mammifères fossiles de Saint-Gérand-le-Puy (Allier). Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Sciences Naturelles 19:295–309.Google Scholar
Franzen, J. L., and Storch, G. 1975. Die unterpliozäne (turolische) Wirbeltierfauna von Dorn-Dürkheim, Rheinhessen (SW-Deutschland). Senckenbergiana Lethaea 56:233–303.Google Scholar
Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, E. 1833. Considérations sur les ossemens fossiles la plupart inconnus, trouvés et observés dans les bassins d'Auvergne. Revue Encyclopédique 59:76–95.Google Scholar
Hugueney, M. 1969. Les Rongeurs de l'Oligocène supérieur de Coderet-Branssat (Allier). Documents des Laboratoires de Géologie de la Faculté des Sciences de Lyon 34:1–227.Google Scholar
Hugueney, M., and Escuillié, F. 1995. K-strategy and adaptative specialization in Steneofiber from Montaigu-le-Blin (dept. Allier, France; Lower Miocene, MN2a; 23 Ma): first evidence of life-history strategies in castorid rodents. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 113:217–225.Google Scholar
Hugueney, M., and Mein, P. 1993. Comment on the earliest Spalacinae (Rodentia, Muroidea). Journal of Mammalian Evolution 1:215–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Korth, W. W. 1994. The Tertiary record of rodents in North America. Topics in Geology 12:1–319.Google Scholar
Kurten, B., and Anderson, E. 1980. Pleistocene mammals of North America. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
MacArthur, R. H., and Wilson, E.O. 1967. The theory of island biogeography. Monographs on Population Biology 1:1–203.Google Scholar
Martin, L. D. 1987. Beavers from the Harrison Formation (early Miocene) with a revision of Euhapsis. Dakoterra 3:73–91. South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City.Google Scholar
Martin, L. D., and Bennett, D. K. 1977. The burrows of the Miocene beaver Palaeocastor, western Nebraska, U.S.A. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 22:173–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, G. S., and Gidley, J. W. 1919. A new rodent from the upper Oligocene of France. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 41:595–601.Google Scholar
Moore, J. 1890. Concerning a skeleton of the great fossil beaver, Castoroides ohioensis. Journal of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History 13:138–169.Google Scholar
Quinet, G. E., and Misonne, X. 1965. Les insectivores zalambdodontes de l'Oligocène inférieur belge. Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique 41:1–15.Google Scholar
Rögl, F., and Steininger, F. 1983. Vom Zerfall der Tethys zu Mediterran und Paratethys. Annale des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien 85:135–163.Google Scholar
Savage, D. E., and Russell, D. E. 1983. Mammalian palaeofaunas of the world. Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass.Google Scholar
Schreuder, A. 1929. Conodontes and Castor from the Teglian Clay compared with the Castoridae from other localities. Archives du Musée Teyler 6:99–320.Google Scholar
Stehlin, H. G. 1923. Rhizospalax poirrieri Miller & Gidley und die Gebissformel der Spalaciden. Verhandlungen der Schweizerischen Paläontologischen Gesellschaft 34:233–263.Google Scholar
Stirton, R. A. 1935. A review of the Tertiary beavers. University of California Publications, Bulletin of the Department of Geological Sciences 23:391–458.Google Scholar
Stirton, R. A. 1965. Cranial morphology of Castoroides. Dr. D. N. Wadia Commemorative Volume:273–289. Mining Geological and Metallurgical Institute of India.Google Scholar
Tedford, R. H., Skinner, M. F., Fields, R. W., Rensberger, J. M., Whistler, D. P., Galusha, T., Taylor, B. E., Macdonald, J. R., and Webb, S. D. 1987. Faunal succession and biochronology of the Arikareean through Hemphillian interval (late Oligocene through earliest Pliocene epochs) in North America. pp. 153–210in Woodburne, M. O., ed. Cenozoic mammals of North America. Geochronology and biostratigraphy. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Thaler, L. 1966. Les Rongeurs fossiles du Bas-Languedoc dans leurs rapports avec l'histoire des faunes et la stratigraphie du Tertiaire d'Europe. Mémoires du Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris 17:1–295.Google Scholar
Xu, X. F. 1994. Evolution of Chinese Castoridae. In Tomida, Y., Li, C. K., and Setoguchi, T., eds. Rodent and lagomorph families of Asian origins and diversification. National Science Museum Monographs 8:77–97. Tokyo.Google Scholar