Impacts of the Cretaceous terrestrial revolution and KPg extinction on mammal diversification

MEREDITH, R.W.; JANEčKA, J.E.; GATESY, J.; RYDER, O.A.; FISCHER, C.A.; TEELING, E.C.; GOODBLA, A.; EIZIRIK, E.; SIMÃO, T.L.L.; STADLER, T.; RABOSKY, D.L.; HONEYCUTT, R.L.; John J. FLYNN, J.J.; INGRAM, C.M.; STEINER, C.; WILLIAMS, T.L.; ROBINSON, T.J.; BURK-HERRICK, A.; WESTERMAN, M.; AYOUB, N.A.; SPRINGER, M.S.; William J. MURPHY, W.J. 2011. Impacts of the Cretaceous terrestrial revolution and KPg extinction on mammal diversification. Science 28(334):521-524.

Abstract. Previous analyses of relations, divergence times, and diversification patterns among extant mammalian families have relied on supertree methods and local molecular clocks. We constructed a molecular supermatrix for mammalian families and analyzed these data with likelihood-based methods and relaxed molecular clocks. Phylogenetic analyses resulted in a robust phylogeny with better resolution than phylogenies from supertree methods. Relaxed clock analyses support the long-fuse model of diversification and highlight the importance of including multiple fossil calibrations that are spread across the tree. Molecular time trees and diversification analyses suggest important roles for the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution and Cretaceous-Paleogene (KPg) mass extinction in opening up ecospace that promoted interordinal and intraordinal diversification, respectively. By contrast, diversification analyses provide no support for the hypothesis concerning the delayed rise of present-day mammals during the Eocene Period.

Primer registro de un ejemplar juvenil de Glyptodon sp. (Cingulata, Glyptodontidae) del Cuaternario de la provincia de Córdoba, Argentina

LUNA, C.A.; KRAPOVICKAS, J.M. 2011. Primer registro de un ejemplar juvenil de Glyptodon sp. (Cingulata, Glyptodontidae) del Cuaternario de la provincia de Córdoba, Argentina. Mastozoología Neotropical 18(1):135-141.

Abstract. First record of a juvenile specimen of Glyptodon sp. (Cingulata, Glyptodontidae) from the Quaternary of Córdoba province, Argentina. The first record of a juvenile specimen of Glyptodon sp. (Cingulata, Glyptodontidae) from the Quaternary of Córdoba province, Argentina, is reported. The material consists of 90 osteoderms of the dorsal carapace, 19 osteoderms of the caudal armor and some post-cranial bones. This specimen principally presents hexagon shape osteoderms, with high thickness/maximum diameter ratio, circular or subcircular central figure, elevated in relation with the peripheric surface, with central depression, large piliferous perforations, poorly defined or completely absent peripheric figures and with a concave internal surface.

The Brazilian Caatinga in South American zoogeography: tropical mammals in a dry region

MARES, M.A.; WILLIG, M.R.; LACHER JR., T.E. 1985. The Brazilian Caatinga in South American zoogeography: tropical mammals in a dry region. Journal of Biogeography 12:57-69.

Abstract. Recent research in South American biogeography on groups other than mammals suggests that the semi-arid Caatinga of northeastern Brazil provided xeric refugia during mesic phases of the Pleistocene climatic cycles. If this supposition is correct, the Caatinga mammal fauna might be expected to contain numerous species showing a pronounced level of adaptation to aridity and the origins of a substantial segment of the fauna slr~ould be traceable to the diversification and eventual speciation that would be expected to have resulted from extended isolation in a xeric environment. An analysis of the extant mammal fauna fails to corroborate these predictions; only one endemic mammal species is found in the Caatinga, and the fauna lacks the expected physiological and morphological adaptations. Other vertebrate groups also exhibit low levels of endemism. The high degree of climatic unpredictability that is characteristic of the Caatinga may preclude the development of a unique fauna adapted to xeric conditions. It appears that the present inhabitants of the region avoid the environmental effects of aridity and climatic unpredictability during harsh periods by utilizing the numerous mesic enclaves scattered throughout the Northeast. Indeed, even during periods of elevated precipitation, most mammal species reach their highest density in these relatively restricted areas. Although the Caatinga contains a xeric-adapted flora, it harbours an anomalous mammal fauna that is more characteristic of a mesic tropical biome in terms of both species composition and overall adaptation. The development of an assemblage of vertebrates whose adaptations do not parallel those of the dominant flora in a region is an unusual situation which should be of particular interest to palaeontologists attempting to reconstruct ancient environments.

Holocene vegetation chance and the mammal faunas of South America and Africa

VIVO, M.; CARMIGNOTTO, A.P. 2004. Holocene vegetation chance and the mammal faunas of South America and Africa. Journal of Biogeography 31:943-957.

Abstract
Aim. Although sharing many similarities in their vegetation types, South America and Africa harbour very dissimilar recent mammal faunas, not only taxonomically but also in terms of several faunistic patterns. However late Pleistocene and mid-Holocene faunas, albeit taxonomically distinct, presented many convergent attributes. Here we propose that the effects of the Holocene climatic change on vegetation physiognomy has played a crucial role in shaping the extant mammalian faunistic patterns.
Location. South America and Africa from the late Pleistocene to the present.
Methods. Data presented here have been compiled from many distinct sources, including palaeontological and neontological mammalian studies, palaeoclimatology, palynology, and publications on vegetation ecology. Data on Pleistocene, Holocene and extant mammal faunas of South America and Africa allowed us to establish a number of similar and dissimilar faunistic patterns between the two continents across time. We then considered what changes in vegetation physiognomy would have occurred under the late Pleistocene last

glacial maximum (LGM) and the Holocene climatic optimum (HCO) climatic regimes. We have ordained these proposed vegetation changes along rough physiognomic seral stages according to assumptions based on current botanical research. Finally, we have associated our hypothesized vegetation changes in South America and Africa with mammalian faunistic patterns, establishing a putative causal relationship between them.

Results. The extant mammal faunas of South America and Africa differ widely in taxonomical composition; the number of medium and large species they possess; behavioural and ecological characteristics related to herbivore herding, migration and predation; and biogeographical patterns. All such distinctions are mostly

related to the open formation faunas, and have been completely established around the mid-Holocene. Considering that the mid-Holocene was a time of greater humidity than the late Pleistocene, vegetation cover in South America and Africa would have been dominated by forest or closed vegetation landscapes, at

least for most of their lower altitude tropical regions. We attribute the loss of larger-sized mammal lineages in South America to the decrease of open vegetation area, and their survival in Africa to the existence of vast savannas in formerly steppic or desertic areas in subtropical Africa, north and south of the equator. Alternative explanations, mostly dealing with the disappearance of South American megamammals, are then reviewed and criticized.

Main conclusions. The reduction of open formation areas during the HCO in South America and Africa explains most of the present distinct faunistic patterns between the two continents. While South America would have lost most of its open formations within the 30 latitudinal belt, Africa would have kept large areas suitable to the open formation mammalian fauna in areas presently occupied by desert and semi-arid vegetation. Thus, the same general climatic events that affected South America in the late Pleistocene and Holocene also affected Africa, leading to our present day faunistic dissimilarities by maintaining the African mammalian communities almost unchanged while dramatically altering those of South America.

Marsupial relationships and a timeline for marsupial radiation in South Gondwana

NILSSON, M.A.; ARNASON, U.; SPENCER, P.B.S.; JANKE, A. 2004. Marsupial relationships and a timeline for marsupial radiation in South Gondwana. Gene 340:189-196.

Abstract. Recent marsupials include about 280 species divided into 18 families and seven orders. Approximately 200 species live in Australia/New Guinea. The remaining species inhabit South American with some of these secondarily ranging into North America. In this study, we examine marsupial relationships and estimate their divergences times using complete mitochondrial (mt) genomes. The sampling, which includes nine new mtDNAs and a total number of 19 marsupial genomes, encompasses all extant orders and 14 families. The analysis identified a basal split between Didelphimorphia and remaining orders about 69 million years before present (MYBP), while other ordinal divergences were placed in Tertiary times. The monotypic South American order Microbiotheria (Dromiciops gliroides, Monito del Monte) was solidly nested among its Australian counterparts. The results suggest that marsupials colonized Australia twice from Antarctica/South America and that the divergence between Microbiotheria and its Australian relatives coincided with the geological separation of Antarctica and Australia. Within Australia itself, several of the deepest divergences were estimated to have taken place close to the Eocene/Oligocene transition.