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Early Mammals: Morganucodontids. Morganucodon. Early Mammals: Triconodonts. Till recently, known only from teeth and a few other skeletal fragments. Similar to Morganucodontids, except the cusps are linear. Jeholodens. Triconodonts cont., Jeholodens. Discovered in China a few years ago
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Early Mammals: Morganucodontids Morganucodon
Early Mammals: Triconodonts • Till recently, known only from teeth and a few other skeletal fragments. • Similar to Morganucodontids, except the cusps are linear. Jeholodens
Triconodonts cont., Jeholodens • Discovered in China a few years ago • Mammalian pectoral girdle • (scapula and clavicle only– loss of coracoids and interclavicle) • Pelvic girdle is still ancestral • ilium, ischium and pubis are separate, epipubic bones are present. • Sprawling posture – limbs not rotated under body. • Demonstration of mosaic evolution. • pectoral girdle is derived, but the pelvic girdle is primitive.
Triconodonts cont., Repenomamus giganticus
Early Mammals: Multituberculates Kryptobataar.
Multituberculates cont. Ptilodus
Early Mammals: Pantotheres • Paraphyletic- used informally • Mid Jurassic • Earliest bifunctional teeth - single cheek tooth with grinding and shearing function. • Tribosphenic molars, ( primitive tooth type for living mammals)
Early Mammals: Recent finds Bishops, Ausktribosphenos
Prototheria Eutherians Metatherians Pantotheres Trichodonts Multituberculates Monotremes Morganucodontids
Monotremes: Fossil Record Archer et al 1985 • Steropodon galmanii • 125 MYA (Lightning Ridge sandstone deposits, New South Wales) • Teeth resemble those of a juvenile platypus • Second find- Kollikodon ritchiei, 1995, suggests diversification by early Cretaceous
Monotremes: Fossil Record cont. • Tertiary Fossils • Obdurodon insignis (1970), O. dicksoni (Archer 1992) • Miocene • Kept teeth at maturity • May have been terrestrial • Megalibgwiliaramsayi (Griffiths 1991), Zaglossus hacketti • Giant echidnas • Z. hacketti = largest monotreme ever
Monotreme origins and distribution: Paleocene platypus tooth discovered in Argentina (Pascual, 1992)
Monotremes • Often called ‘primitive’… a misnomer • Mosaics of primitive and derived traits Tachyglossus - short-beaked echidna
Monotremes: Primitive characters Reproductive characters
Tachyglossidae- continued Tachyglossus aculeatus Atelerix frontalis Zaglossus bruijni
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences No. 1372, Platypus Biology: Recent Advances and Reviews, Jul. 29, 1998, pp. 1057-1238 Ornithorhynchidae (Platypus) Ornithorhynchus