Polydolopimorphia

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Polydolopimorphia
Temporal range: PaleocenePliocene, 66–2.6 Ma
Argyrolagus NT.jpg
Argyrolagus palmeri
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Clade: Metatheria
Clade: Marsupialiformes
Order: Polydolopimorphia
Archer, 1984
Subgroups

Polydolopimorphia is an extinct order of metatherians, closely related to extant marsupials. Known from the Paleocene-Pliocene of South America and the Eocene of Antarctica, they were a diverse group during the Paleogene, filling many niches, before declining and becoming extinct at the end of the Neogene. [1] It is divided into two suborders, Bonapartheriiformes, and Polydolopiformes [2] Most members are only known from jaw fragments, which have their characteristically generally bunodont teeth. [3] The morphology of their teeth has led to proposals that polydolopimorphians may be crown group marsupials, nested within Australidelphia, [4] though this proposal, has been questioned, with other analyses finding them outside of crown-group Marsupialia. [3] The monophyly of the group has been questioned, due to the possibility of the characteristic bunodont teeth emerging convergently in unrelated groups, rather than reflecting a true phylogenetic relationship. [5] The group contained omnivorous, frugivorous and herbivorous forms. [4]

Taxonomy

Taxonomical subdivision of the Polydolopimorphia: [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opossum</span> Family of mammals

Opossums are members of the marsupial order Didelphimorphia endemic to the Americas. The largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, it comprises 126 species in 18 genera. Opossums originated in South America and entered North America in the Great American Interchange following the connection of North and South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metatheria</span> Clade of marsupials and close relatives

Metatheria is a mammalian clade that includes all mammals more closely related to marsupials than to placentals. First proposed by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1880, it is a more inclusive group than the marsupials; it contains all marsupials as well as many extinct non-marsupial relatives. It is one of two groups placed in the clade Theria alongside Eutheria, which contains the placentals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paucituberculata</span> Order of marsupials

Paucituberculata is an order of South American marsupials. Although currently represented only by the seven living species of shrew opossums, this order was formerly much more diverse, with more than 60 extinct species named from the fossil record, particularly from the late Oligocene to early Miocene epochs. The earliest paucituberculatans date to the late Paleocene. The group went through a pronounced decline in the middle Miocene epoch, which resulted in the extinction of all families of this order except for the living shrew opossums (Caenolestidae). Extinct families of Paucituberculatans include Pichipilidae, Palaeothentidae, and Abderitidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sparassodonta</span> Extinct order of mammals

Sparassodonta is an extinct order of carnivorous metatherian mammals native to South America, related to modern marsupials. They were once considered to be true marsupials, but are now thought to be a separate side branch that split before the last common ancestor of all modern marsupials. A number of these mammalian predators closely resemble placental predators that evolved separately on other continents, and are cited frequently as examples of convergent evolution. They were first described by Florentino Ameghino, from fossils found in the Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia. Sparassodonts were present throughout South America's long period of "splendid isolation" during the Cenozoic; during this time, they shared the niches for large warm-blooded predators with the flightless terror birds. Previously, it was thought that these mammals died out in the face of competition from "more competitive" placental carnivorans during the Pliocene Great American Interchange, but more recent research has showed that sparassodonts died out long before eutherian carnivores arrived in South America. Sparassodonts have been referred to as borhyaenoids by some authors, but currently the term Borhyaenoidea refers to a restricted subgroup of sparassodonts comprising borhyaenids and their close relatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borhyaenidae</span> Extinct family of mammals

Borhyaenidae is an extinct metatherian family of low-slung, heavily built predatory mammals in the order Sparassodonta. Borhyaenids are not true marsupials, but members of a sister taxon, Sparassodonta. Like most metatherians, borhyaenids and other sparassodonts are thought to have had a pouch to carry their offspring around. Borhyaenids had strong and powerful jaws, like those of the unrelated placentalians Hyaenodon and Andrewsarchus, for crushing bones. Borhyaenids grew up to an average of 5 to 6 feet long.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herpetotheriidae</span> Extinct family of mammals

Herpetotheriidae is an extinct family of metatherians, closely related to marsupials. Species of this family are generally reconstructed as terrestrial, and are considered morphologically similar to modern opossums. Fossils of herpetotheriids come from North America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and perhaps South America. The oldest representative is Maastrichtidelphys from the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of the Netherlands and the youngest member is Amphiperatherium from the Middle Miocene of Europe. The group has been suggested to be paraphyletic, with an analysis of petrosal anatomy finding that North American Herpetotherium was more closely related to marsupials than the European Peratherium and Amphiperatherium.

Chulpasia is an extinct genus of Eocene marsupial related to today's shrew opossums. It was a small animal, about 20 centimetres (7.9 in) long, with an omnivorous diet. Its diet probably included seeds, small fruits, and insects. Fossils were found in the Muñani Formation in present-day Peru.

The Santa Rosa local fauna consists of the animals found in the Paleogene fossil site of Santa Rosa in eastern Peru. The age of the Santa Rosa fauna is difficult to determine, but may be Eocene (Mustersan) or Oligocene (Deseadan).

<i>Dukecynus</i> Extinct genus of large meat-eating metatherian

Dukecynus is an extinct genus of meat-eating metatherian belonging to the order Sparassodonta, which lived in South America during the Middle Miocene (Laventan), between about 13.8 and 11.8 million years ago. The name of the genus meaning "Duke dog", for Duke University and the Greek word cynos, dog, for the pretended similarity of this animal with dogs. A single species known so far, Dukecynus magnus. The species name "magnus" derives from Latin for big, to reflect their great size.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proborhyaenidae</span> Extinct family of mammals

Proborhyaenidae is an extinct family of metatherian mammals of the order Sparassodonta, which lived in South America from the Eocene (Mustersan) until the Oligocene (Deseadan). Sometimes it has been included as a subfamily of their relatives, the borhyaenids. The largest species, Proborhyaena gigantea, is estimated to be about the size of a spectacled bear, with its skull reaching 60 cm (2.0 ft) in length, and body mass estimates up to approximately 90–200 kg (200–440 lb), making the proborhyaenids some of the largest known metatherians. Proborhyaenid remains have been found in western Bolivia, Uruguay, southern Brazil, and the provinces of Mendoza, Salta, and Chubut, in Argentina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thylacosmilidae</span> Extinct family of mammals

Thylacosmilidae is an extinct family of metatherian predators, related to the modern marsupials, which lived in South America between the Miocene and Pliocene epochs. Like other South American mammalian predators that lived prior to the Great American Biotic Interchange, these animals belonged to the order Sparassodonta, which occupied the ecological niche of many eutherian mammals of the order Carnivora from other continents. The family's most notable feature are the elongated, laterally flattened fangs, which is a remarkable evolutionary convergence with other saber-toothed mammals like Barbourofelis and Smilodon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stagodontidae</span> Extinct family of mammals

Stagodontidae is an extinct family of carnivorous metatherian mammals that inhabited North America and Europe during the late Cretaceous, and possibly to the Eocene in South America.

Groeberiidae is a family of strange non-placental mammals from the Eocene and Oligocene epochs of Patagonia, Argentina and Chile, South America. Originally classified as paucituberculate marsupials, they were suggested to be late representatives of the allothere clade Gondwanatheria. However, the relationship of the type genus, Groeberia, to Gondwanatheria has been firmly rejected by other scholars.

Antarctodolops is an extinct genus of polydolopimorphian metatherian similar to, but not closely related to, the living shrew opossums. It lived on Seymour Island, Antarctica in the Eocene. Two species, Antarctodolops dailyi and Antarctodolops mesetaense, have been found. These species were different sizes, with A. mesetaense being the larger.

Cocatherium is an extinct genus of marsupial mammals of uncertain family placement, from the earliest Paleocene of South America, predating the Tiupampan South American land mammal age. The genus was described based on a fossil molar that was found in the Danian part of the Cretaceous-Paleogene Lefipán Formation in the Cañadón Asfalto Basin in north-central Patagonia, Argentina. The type species of the genus is C. lefipanum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Itaboraí Formation</span> Geologic formation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Itaboraí Formation is a highly fossiliferous geologic formation and Lagerstätte of the Itaboraí Basin in Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil. The formation reaching a thickness of 100 metres (330 ft) is the defining unit for the Itaboraian South American land mammal age (SALMA), dating to the Early Eocene, approximately 53 to 50 Ma.

Hondonadia is an extinct genus of Late Eocene to Early Oligocene (Tinguirirican) marsupials related to today's shrew opossums and with similar features as the related Rosendolops. The type species Hondonadia feruglioi was described by Goin and Candela in 1998. In later years, five more species were recognized, of which Pascualdelphys fierroensis, described by Flynn and Wyss in 1999, that was in 2010 synonymized with Hondonadia.

Arminiheringia is an extinct genus of sparassodont. It lived during the Early Eocene in South America.

<i>Proborhyaena</i> Extinct genus of metatherians

Proborhyaena is an extinct genus of proborhyaenid sparassodont that lived during the Oligocene of what is now South America. It is considered to be the largest of the sparassodonts.

References

  1. Beck, Robin M. D. (2016). "The Skull of Epidolops ameghinoi from the Early Eocene Itaboraí Fauna, Southeastern Brazil, and the Affinities of the Extinct Marsupialiform Order Polydolopimorphia". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 24 (4): 373–414. doi:10.1007/s10914-016-9357-6. ISSN   1064-7554. PMC   5684316 . PMID   29187780.
  2. Chornogubsky, Laura; Goin, Francisco J. (2015). "A review of the molar morphology and phylogenetic affinities of Sillustania quechuense(Metatheria, Polydolopimorphia, Sillustaniidae), from the early Paleogene of Laguna Umayo, southeastern Peru". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 35 (6): e983238. doi:10.1080/02724634.2015.983238. hdl: 11336/46844 . ISSN   0272-4634. S2CID   86106580.
  3. 1 2 Beck, Robin M. D. (2023), Cáceres, Nilton C.; Dickman, Christopher R. (eds.), "Diversity and Phylogeny of Marsupials and Their Stem Relatives (Metatheria)", American and Australasian Marsupials, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1–66, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-88800-8_35-1, ISBN   978-3-030-88800-8 , retrieved 2023-05-14
  4. 1 2 Goin, Francisco J.; Woodburne, Michael O.; Zimicz, Ana Natalia; Martin, Gabriel M.; Chornogubsky, Laura (2016), "Phylogeny and Diversity of South American Metatherians", A Brief History of South American Metatherians, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 155–183, doi:10.1007/978-94-017-7420-8_5, ISBN   978-94-017-7418-5 , retrieved 2022-02-19
  5. Beck, Robin M. D. (2023), Cáceres, Nilton C.; Dickman, Christopher R. (eds.), "Diversity and Phylogeny of Marsupials and Their Stem Relatives (Metatheria)", American and Australasian Marsupials, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1–66, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-88800-8_35-1, ISBN   978-3-030-88800-8 , retrieved 2024-04-16
  6. Polydolopimorphia at Fossilworks.org
  7. Laura Chornogubsky (2021). "Interrelationships of Polydolopidae (Mammalia: Marsupialia) from South America and Antarctica". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 192 (4): 1195–1236. doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa143 . hdl: 11336/131166 . Along with: