Ferugliotheriidae
Ferugliotheriidae Temporal range: Late Cretaceous; Paleogene?
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Clade: | †Gondwanatheria |
Family: | †Ferugliotheriidae Bonaparte , 1986
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Type genus | |
Bonaparte , 1986
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Genera | |
Ferugliotheriidae is one of three known families in the order Gondwanatheria, an enigmatic group of extinct mammals. Gondwanatheres have been classified as a group of uncertain affinities or as members of Multituberculata, a major extinct mammalian order. The best-known representative of Ferugliotheriidae is the genus Ferugliotherium from the Late Cretaceous epoch in Argentina. A second genus, Trapalcotherium, is known from a single tooth, a first lower molariform (molar-like tooth), from a different Late Cretaceous Argentinean locality. Another genus known from a single tooth (in this case, a fourth lower premolar), Argentodites, was first described as an unrelated multituberculate, but later identified as possibly related to Ferugliotherium. Finally, a single tooth from the Paleogene of Peru, LACM 149371, perhaps a last upper molariform, and a recent specimen from Mexico,[1] may represent related animals.
Ferugliotheriids are known from isolated, low-crowned (
Most ferugliotheriids come from the Late Cretaceous epoch (
Taxonomy
The first member of the family Ferugliotheriidae to be discovered,
Also in 1990, Bonaparte merged the family Gondwanatheriidae into Sudamericidae and, together with David Krause, redefined Gondwanatheria as a multituberculate suborder that included both Ferugliotheriidae and Sudamericidae, thus rejecting a relationship between gondwanatheres and xenarthrans.[6] Krause, Bonaparte, and Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska redescribed Ferugliotherium in 1992 and suggested that the teeth that Vucetichia was based on may have been worn specimens of Ferugliotherium.[7] They placed Ferugliotherium among multituberculates and suggested that it may be part of the suborder Plagiaulacoidea.[8] The following year, Krause confirmed that Vucetichia gracilis is a synonym of Ferugliotherium windhauseni.[2] Together with Bonaparte, he also proposed to classify gondwanatheres as a superfamily (Gondwanatherioidea) within Plagiaulacoidea, including the families Ferugliotheriidae and Sudamericidae.[9] In 1996, Kielan-Jaworowska and Bonaparte tentatively identified a lower jaw fragment with a multituberculate-like fourth lower premolar (p4) from Los Alamitos as Ferugliotherium.[10] On the basis of the morphological features of the jaw fragment, they argued that gondwanatheres are not closely related to any other multituberculate group, and consequently placed them in a suborder of their own, Gondwanatheria.[11]
In 1999, Rosendo Pascual and colleagues described a lower jaw of Sudamerica, which had previously only been known from isolated teeth. This jaw fragment showed that Sudamerica had four molariform teeth on each side of the lower jaws, more than any multituberculate, and consequently they removed gondwanatheres from Multituberculata and regarded their affinities as uncertain.[12] As a consequence, Kielan-Jaworowska and colleagues excluded Gondwanatheria from multituberculates, but identified the jaw fragment and a few upper premolars of Ferugliotherium as indeterminate multituberculates in a 2001 paper and a 2004 book.[13] However, in 2009 Yamila Gurovich and Robin Beck identified these fossils as Ferugliotherium and argued in favor of a close relationship between gondwanatheres (including Ferugliotheriidae) and multituberculates.[14]
In the 2000s, additional members of Ferugliotheriidae were described. In 2004, Francisco Goin and colleagues described a single enigmatic tooth from the
Description
Ferugliotheriids are known from a few dozen isolated teeth and a questionably allocated jaw fragment. Most fossils are referred to Ferugliotherium; Trapalcotherium and Argentodites were each described on the basis of a single tooth.
Unlike the very high-crowned (
The incisors, known only from Ferugliotherium, are procumbent and long. Three lower and four upper incisors are known. As is usual in mammals with similarly shaped (
The specimen MACN Pv-RN 975, first described by Kielan-Jaworowska and Bonaparte in 1996, may be a jaw fragment of Ferugliotherium, although it has also been identified as an unrelated multituberculate.
Two fossils have been interpreted as isolated lower premolars of Ferugliotherium, but neither is still regarded as such.[29] Two other teeth have been identified as upper premolars of Ferugliotherium; as with the jaw fragment, they may also represent an indeterminate multituberculate.[25] One of the two preserves two longitudinal rows of cusps, of which one contains four and the other at least two cusps. The other is more poorly preserved, but may represent the same tooth position. These teeth resemble multituberculate upper premolars.[30]
Four putative first lower molariforms (mf1s) of Ferugliotherium are known,[31] and the only known tooth of Trapalcotherium is also thought to be an mf1.[18] Ferugliotherium mf1s are roughly rectangular, with rounded corners, and bear two longitudinal rows of cusps. There are four cusps in the lingual row (on the side of the tongue) and three in the labial row (the side of the lips). The cusps are connected to cusps in the other row by transverse ridges and separated from cusps in their own rows by three transverse furrows.[32] Two heavily worn Ferugliotherium mf1s were originally identified as upper molars of Vucetichia gracilis by Bonaparte in 1990. One of the two preserves the roots; at the front and back, there were two roots, fused at their bases.[33] The mf1 of Trapalcotherium differs only in some details; among others, the cusps are less distinct from the crests.[18] The sole mf2 of Ferugliotherium is the holotype. It bears two rows of two cusps. The cusps in the front and back pairs are connected by a broad ridge and the two pairs are separated by a deep furrow.[34] Transverse ridges between the cusps similar to those seen in ferugliotheriids are not known in any multituberculate.[8] On the other hand, overall patterns of cusps and ridges are essentially similar among Ferugliotherium, Gondwanatherium, and Sudamerica, indicating that the three are closely related.[35]
One Ferugliotherium tooth is thought to be a first upper molariform (MF1). It is almost rectangular and bears three longitudinal rows of cusps. There are five cusps in the middle row, which is oriented obliquely, four cusps in one of the rows on the side of the tooth, and two or three in the other row on the side. As in the lower molariforms, the cusps are connected by transverse ridges and separated by furrows.[36] LACM 149371, the enigmatic possibly ferugliotheriid tooth from Peru, is a triangular tooth bearing six or seven cusps, which are connected by crests and surround two deep fossae (basins) and a third shallower fossa.[37]
Range, ecology, and evolution
With its low-crowned teeth, Ferugliotherium may have been an insectivore or omnivore, like similar multituberculates such as Mesodma, which is thought to have eaten insects, other arthropods, seeds, and/or nuts. The wear on Ferugliotherium teeth suggests that the animal may have eaten some plant material.[38] The high-crowned sudamericids are thought to have been herbivores feeding on abrasive vegetation, although their precise diet is not known.[39] In the evolutionary history of gondwanatheres, hypsodont teeth are thought to have evolved from brachydont precursors. Gurovich hypothesizes that the anterior molariforms of sudamericids may have evolved from bladelike premolars as seen in Ferugliotherium.[40]
Fossils of Argentinean ferugliotheriids come from the
In each of the three formations, the mammalian fauna is dominated by the archaic group
The
More recently, a specimen has been found in the Cerro del Pueblo Formation of Mexico, bearing several similarities to Ferugliotherium. If a ferugliotheriid, this would extend the clade's range into the Maastrichtian of North America.[52]
The range of the Ferugliotheriidae is overall more limited, both in extent and time, than that of Sudamericidae; sudamericids have been recorded from the Late Cretaceous to Miocene of Argentina, the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar and India, the
References
- ^ SVP 2015
- ^ a b Krause 1993, p. 321.
- ^ Krause 1993, p. 321; Krause, Kielan-Jaworowska & Bonaparte 1992, p. 351.
- ^ Bonaparte 1990, p. 77.
- ^ Bonaparte 1990, pp. 82, 84–86.
- ^ Gurovich 2005, p. 151; Krause & Bonaparte 1993, p. 9379.
- ^ Krause, Kielan-Jaworowska & Bonaparte 1992, p. 362.
- ^ a b Krause, Kielan-Jaworowska & Bonaparte 1992, p. 372.
- ^ a b Krause & Bonaparte 1993, p. 9382.
- ^ Kielan-Jaworowska & Bonaparte 1996, p. 1.
- ^ Kielan-Jaworowska & Bonaparte 1996, p. 8.
- ^ Pascual et al. 1999, p. 373.
- ^ Kielan-Jaworowska & Hurum 2001, p. 411; Kielan-Jaworowska, Cifelli & Luo 2004, pp. 335–336.
- ^ Gurovich & Beck 2009, p. 25.
- ^ Goin et al. 2004, p. 152.
- ^ Kielan-Jaworowska et al. 2007, p. 257.
- ^ a b Gurovich & Beck 2009, p. 32.
- ^ a b c Rougier et al. 2009, p. 232.
- ^ Rougier et al. 2009, p. 233.
- S2CID 230968231.
- ^ Kielan-Jaworowska et al. 2007, p. 258; Rougier et al. 2009, p. 232; Gurovich & Beck 2009, table 1.
- ^ Gurovich 2005, p. 326.
- ^ Gurovich 2008, table 2.
- ^ Krause, Kielan-Jaworowska & Bonaparte 1992, pp. 352–355.
- ^ a b Gurovich & Beck 2009, pp. 30–31.
- ^ Kielan-Jaworowska & Bonaparte 1996, p. 5; Gurovich 2005, pp. 327, 329.
- ^ Kielan-Jaworowska & Bonaparte 1996, p. 5; Gurovich 2005, pp. 329–330.
- ^ Kielan-Jaworowska et al. 2007, p. 260.
- ^ Krause, Kielan-Jaworowska & Bonaparte 1992, p. 360; Pascual et al. 1999, p. 376.
- ^ Krause, Kielan-Jaworowska & Bonaparte 1992, p. 355.
- ^ Gurovich & Beck 2009, table 1; Krause 1993, p. 321.
- ^ Krause 1993, pp. 321–323; Pascual et al. 1999, fig. 2.
- ^ Krause, Kielan-Jaworowska & Bonaparte 1992, p. 362; Krause 1993, p. 324.
- ^ Krause, Kielan-Jaworowska & Bonaparte 1992, pp. 354–355.
- ^ Krause & Bonaparte 1993, p. 9380.
- ^ Krause, Kielan-Jaworowska & Bonaparte 1992, p. 357.
- ^ Goin et al. 2004, p. 146.
- ^ Gurovich 2008, p. 1086.
- ^ Gurovich 2008, pp. 1084, 1086.
- ^ Gurovich 2005, pp. 249–250.
- ^ Rougier et al. 2009, pp. 196–197; Gurovich & Beck 2009, table 3; Rougier et al. 2009, p. 232.
- ^ a b Rougier et al. 2009, p. 225.
- ^ Rougier et al. 2009, p. 197.
- ^ Rougier et al. 2009, p. 223; Rougier et al. 2009, pp. 196–197; Gurovich & Beck 2009, table 3.
- ^ Gurovich & Beck 2009, table 3; Rougier et al. 2007, p. 10.
- ^ Rougier et al. 2009, p. 223.
- ^ Rougier et al. 2009, p. 233; Gurovich 2005, pp. 209, 212; Pascual et al. 2000, pp. 399–400.
- ^ Goin et al. 2004, p. 145.
- ^ Campbell 2004, pp. 156–159.
- ^ Campbell 2004, pp. 159–160; Vucetich et al. 2010, pp. 201–202.
- ^ Campbell 2004, p. 161.
- ^ SVP 2015
- ^ Gurovich & Beck 2009, pp. 26, 31–32.
- ^ SVP 2015
Literature cited
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- Campbell, Jr. (2004). "The Santa Rosa local fauna: A summary". Science Series, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. 40: 155–163.
- Goin, F.J.; Vieytes, E.C.; Vucetich, M.G.; Carlini, A.A.; Bond, M. (2004). "Enigmatic mammal from the Paleogene of Perú" (PDF). Science Series, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. 40: 145–153. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-12-20. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
- Gurovich, Y. (2005). Bio-evolutionary aspects of Mesozoic mammals: Description, phylogenetic relationships and evolution of the Gondwanatheria, (Late Cretaceous and Paleocene of Gondwana) (PDF) (PhD thesis). Universidad de Buenos Aires. p. 546. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-17.
- Gurovich, Y. (2008). "Additional specimens of sudamericid (Gondwanatheria) mammals from the Early Paleocene of Argentina". Palaeontology. 51 (5): 1069–1089. S2CID 129571614.
- Gurovich, Y.; Beck, R. (2009). "The phylogenetic affinities of the enigmatic mammalian clade Gondwanatheria". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 16 (1): 25–49. S2CID 42799370.
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- Kielan-Jaworowska, Z.; Cifelli, R.; Luo, Z.-X. (2004). Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs: Origins, Evolution, and Structure. Columbia University Press. p. 630. ISBN 978-0-231-11918-4.
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- Krause, D.W.; Bonaparte, J.F. (1993). "Superfamily Gondwanatherioidea: A previously unrecognized radiation of multituberculate mammals in South America". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 90 (20): 9379–9383. PMID 8415710.
- Krause, D.; Kielan-Jaworowska, Z.; Bonaparte, J. (1992). "Ferugliotherium Bonaparte, the first known multituberculate from South America". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 12 (3): 351–376. JSTOR 4523458.
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- Pascual, R.; Goin, F.; Krause, D.; Ortiz-Jaureguizar, E.; Carlini, A. (1999). "The first gnathic remains of Sudamerica: Implications for gondwanathere relationships". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 19 (2): 373–382. .
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