The Placental Mammal Ancestor and the Post-K-Pg Radiation of Placentals
Abstract
To discover interordinal relationships of living and fossil placental mammals and the time of origin of placentals relative to the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, we scored 4541 phenomic characters de novo for 86 fossil and living species. Combining these data with molecular sequences, we obtained a phylogenetic tree that, when calibrated with fossils, shows that crown clade Placentalia and placental orders originated after the K-Pg boundary. Many nodes discovered using molecular data are upheld, but phenomic signals overturn molecular signals to show Sundatheria (Dermoptera + Scandentia) as the sister taxon of Primates, a close link between Proboscidea (elephants) and Sirenia (sea cows), and the monophyly of echolocating Chiroptera (bats). Our tree suggests that Placentalia first split into Xenarthra and Epitheria; extinct New World species are the oldest members of Afrotheria.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- February 2013
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.1229237
- Bibcode:
- 2013Sci...339..662O
- Keywords:
-
- EVOLUTION Paleontology, Anatomy, Zoology