RE: "Neomammals" (arising out of Neoaves discussion)

[Michael Mortimer <mickey_mortimer111@msn.com>]

Allen Hazen wrote-

> I certainly  hope such a project is carried out.  Since the split between 
> the Placental superorders seems to have  taken place before there was much 
> morphological differentiation, it seems to be difficult to place primitive 
> types: witness the suggestion that Phenacodont "condylarths" are Afrotheres 
> despite their historic association with Perissodactyls, which are  about as 
> core Laurasiathere as you can get!  ...  Given the resemblance of some 
> early South American "ungulates" to North American "condylarths," I would 
> ***bet*** that the South American endemic "ungulate" radiation was 
> Laurasiatherian if I was forced to, but it would be REALLY nice to get some 
> molecular  data.

I wonder if we're just screwed with mammalian morphological analyses.  Even 
if we use a molecaular 'scaffold' to constrain results, will we just get 
ecotypes clading together?  Sure, you may say that morphological and 
molecular analyses are converging, based on new morphological studies.  But 
that's because we 'know where to look', so to speak (like the new 
hippo-whale characters in Geisler and Uhen, 2003).  I've often said I could 
create any result for coelurosaur phylogeny in PAUP, and I fear this trend 
is similar.  Are we just fulfilling our expectations, and does this have 
consequences for trees without molecular expectations (extinct mammal 
clades, non-avian dinosaurs)?

> While we are at it-- since "Lipotyphla" seems to be polyphyletic, some 
> Afrotheres and some Laurasiatheres-- has anyone done molecular studies on 
> Solenodon?  Or on the remains of Nesophontids?

Roca et al. (2004) used portions of 16 nuclear and three mitochondrial genes 
and found Solenodon is the most basal eulipotyphlan (100% Bayesian posterior 
probability).  Haven't heard of Nesophontes DNA, but when the authors used 
Asher et al.'s (2002) morphological 'insectivore' analysis with their 
molecular results constraining the topology, Nesophontes was more closely 
related to soricids than erinaceids or Solenodon.

Mickey Mortimer