Early tertiary elephant-shrews from Egypt and the origin of the Macroscelidea.
Abstract
Recent expeditions to the Fayum Depression, Egypt, have made possible the discovery of mandibles and a maxilla of a new genus and species of late Eocene elephant-shrew as well as initial evidence of the upper dentition of the early Oligocene taxon Metoldobotes. These fossils demonstrate that macroscelideans underwent a significant radiation in the Early Tertiary of Africa. Two new subfamilies are recognized and described. These Tertiary macroscelideans are the most primitive elephant-shrews known and indicate that previous hypotheses of a close phylogenetic relationship between macroscelideans and either lagomorphs, erinaceotans, or tree-shrews are unlikely. Rather, the dental anatomy of the Fayum macroscelideans provides evidence for a derivation of the order from within the Condylarthra.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- November 1991
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.88.21.9734
- Bibcode:
- 1991PNAS...88.9734S