Dryolestida

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Dryolestida
Temporal range:
Ma
Skeleton of Henkelotherium
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Clade: Cladotheria
Superorder: †Dryolestoidea
Butler, 1939
Order: †Dryolestida
Prothero, 1981
Families and genera

Dryolestida is an extinct order of mammals, known from the

three middle ear bones
. Most members of the group, as with most Mesozoic mammals, are only known from fragmentary tooth and jaw remains.

The group contains

paraphyletic.[2]

Dryolestids were formerly considered part of

Brandoniidae
, but this family is now included with the dryolestids.

Morphology

Dryolestids are mostly represented by

mesungulatids.[4][5]

The basal non dryolestid dryolestidan Henkelotherium from the Late Jurassic of Portugal is known from a partial articulated skeleton, and is thought to have been arboreal, adapted to climbing and living in trees.[6]

last common ancestor of the two mammalian subclasses.[7] In mesungulatids molar tooth eruption is delayed compared to other dryolestoids.[8]

Distribution

Dryolestids are known from the Jurassic through

monotremes, and gondwanatheres.[9]

The oldest named member of Dryolestidae is Anthracolestes from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) aged Itat Formation in western Siberia.[10] Fragmentary remains attributable to dryolestidans are known from the equivalently aged Forest Marble Formation of England[11] and the Anoual Formation of Morocco.[12]

The youngests fossils of Dryolestidans in the Northern Hemisphere are the dryolestids

mesungulatids, becoming some of the most ecologically diverse Mesozoic South American mammals.[15] Groebertherium from the Late Cretaceous of South America has a more primitve morphology similar to Northern Hemisphere dryolestids and may be more closely related to the North Hemisphere dryloestidans than to Meridiolestida.[16]

With the advent of the Cenozoic, dryolestoids declined drastically in diversity, with only the large dog-sized herbivore

Palaeocene. The exact reasons for this decline are not clear; most likely they simply did not recover from the K-Pg event. Nonetheless, meridiolestidans would continue to survive until the Miocene, from when Necrolestes is known; a gap of 50 million years exists between it and Peligrotherium.[17] A tooth fragment, now lost, found in the Eocene aged La Meseta Formation of the Antarctic peninsula, is possibly a meridiolestidan.[18]

Taxonomy

A phylogenetic analysis conducted by Rougier et al. (2012) indicated that meridiolestidans might not be members of Dryolestoidea but instead slightly more closely related to the

amphitheriids. Paurodontids were also recovered as not belonging to Dryolestida, but instead as a sister group of Meridiolestida in this analysis.[19] An analysis conducted by Averianov, Martin and Lopatin (2013) did not recover meridiolestidans as members of Dryolestida as well, but it found them to be the sister group of spalacotheriid "symmetrodonts" instead. However, paurodontids were recovered as members of Dryolestida in this analysis.[20] On the other hand, an analysis conducted by Chimento, Agnolin and Novas (2012) did recover meridiolestidans as members of Dryolestoidea.[21]

Cladogram after Lasseron and colleagues (2022), which found Donodontidae and Meridiolestida unrelated to Dryolestida:[2]

Cladotheria

References

  1. PMC 8126546
    .
  2. ^
    S2CID 249324444
    .
  3. ^ a b Kielan-Jaworowska, Cifelli & Luo 2004, pp. 14, 375, 379–380
  4. hdl:11336/103413
    .
  5. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2012.00852.x
    .
  6. S2CID 145881918
    .
  7. ^ von Koenigswald 2000, p. 107
  8. PMID 33828193
    .
  9. ^ Rose 2006, pp. 335–6
  10. S2CID 85070390
    .
  11. ^ Freeman, E. F. 1979. A Middle Jurassic mammal bed from Oxfordshire. Palaeontology 22:135–166.
  12. ISSN 1342-937X
    .
  13. S2CID 247876132
    .
  14. ^ Lillegraven, J.A. and McKenna, M.C. 1986. Fossil mammals from the “Mesaverde” Formation (Late Cretaceous, Judithian) of the Bighorn and Wind River basins, Wyoming, with definitions of Late Cretaceous North American land-mammal “ages”. American Museum Novitates 2840: 1–68.
  15. ^ Rougier et al. 2009, p. 208.
  16. ^ Harper T, Parras A, Rougier GW. 2018. Reigitherium (Meridiolestida, Mesungulatoidea) an enigmatic Late Cretaceous mammal from Patagonia, Argentina: morphology, affinities, and dental evolution. Journal of Mammalian Evolution.
  17. ^ Florentino Ameghino (1891). "Nuevos restos de mamíferos fósiles descubiertos por Carlos Ameghino en el Eoceno inferior de la Patagonia austral. Especies nuevas, adiciones y correciones". Revista Argentina de Historia Natural. 1: 289–328.
  18. ^ Gelfo, J. N.; Bausza, N.; Reguero, M. (2019). "The fossil record of Antarctic land mammals: commented review and hypotheses for future research". Advances in Polar Science: 274–292. Archived from the original on 2022-01-06. Retrieved 2020-12-07.
  19. PMID 23169652
    .
  20. S2CID 18504005
    .
  21. ^ Nicolás R. Chimento, Federico L. Agnolin and Fernando E. Novas (2012). "The Patagonian fossil mammal Necrolestes: a Neogene survivor of Dryolestoidea" (PDF). Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales. Nueva Serie. 14 (2): 261–306. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-11-04. Retrieved 2013-03-21.

Works cited

Further reading
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dryolestida&oldid=1193537287"