Publication Date:
2014-11-11
Description:
Previously known only from isolated teeth and lower jaw fragments recovered from the Cretaceous and Palaeogene of the Southern Hemisphere, the Gondwanatheria constitute the most poorly known of all major mammaliaform radiations. Here we report the discovery of the first skull material of a gondwanatherian, a complete and well-preserved cranium from Upper Cretaceous strata in Madagascar that we assign to a new genus and species. Phylogenetic analysis strongly supports its placement within Gondwanatheria, which are recognized as monophyletic and closely related to multituberculates, an evolutionarily successful clade of Mesozoic mammals known almost exclusively from the Northern Hemisphere. The new taxon is the largest known mammaliaform from the Mesozoic of Gondwana. Its craniofacial anatomy reveals that it was herbivorous, large-eyed and agile, with well-developed high-frequency hearing and a keen sense of smell. The cranium exhibits a mosaic of primitive and derived features, the disparity of which is extreme and probably reflective of a long evolutionary history in geographic isolation.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Krause, David W -- Hoffmann, Simone -- Wible, John R -- Kirk, E Christopher -- Schultz, Julia A -- von Koenigswald, Wighart -- Groenke, Joseph R -- Rossie, James B -- O'Connor, Patrick M -- Seiffert, Erik R -- Dumont, Elizabeth R -- Holloway, Waymon L -- Rogers, Raymond R -- Rahantarisoa, Lydia J -- Kemp, Addison D -- Andriamialison, Haingoson -- England -- Nature. 2014 Nov 27;515(7528):512-7. doi: 10.1038/nature13922. Epub 2014 Nov 5.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA. ; Section of Mammals, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 5800 Baum Boulevard, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15206, USA. ; Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. ; Steinmann-Institut fur Geologie, Mineralogie und Palaontologie der Universitat Bonn, D-53115 Bonn, Germany. ; Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA. ; 1] Department of Biomedical Sciences, Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA [2] Ohio Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701 USA. ; Department of Biology, 221 Morrill Science Center, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA. ; Geology Department, Macalester College, 1600 Grand Avenue, St Paul, Minnesota 55105, USA. ; Departement de Geologie, Universite d'Antananarivo, Antananarivo (101), Madagascar. ; Departement de Paleontologie, Universite d'Antananarivo, Antananarivo (101), Madagascar.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25383528" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Fossils
;
Herbivory
;
*Mammals
;
Mosaicism
;
*Phylogeny
;
Skull/*anatomy & histology
;
Species Specificity
;
Tooth/anatomy & histology
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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