A Wild Hare [not dino related]

[david peters <davidrpeters@earthlink.net>]

It all started with pterosaurs, of course. 

I've been reading about bat origins lately, and one thing led to another, etc.

I come across this:

http://www.batcon.org/batsmag/v3n2-1.html

Are flying foxes really primates?

And this:

http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Chiroptera

Pettigrew, J. D., B. G. M. Jamieson, S. K. Robson, L. S. Hall, K. I. McAnally, 
& H. M. Cooper. 1989. Phylogenetic relations between microbats, megabats and 
primates (Mammalia: Chiroptera and Primates). Philosophical Transactions of the 
Royal Society of London B 325: 489-559.

and lots more refs included, but deleted here for space.

In the above paper is a ref [not copied] for some soft-tissue cladistic work 
describing a close association between lagomorphs and primates. 

Then I find this:

Asher, et al. 2005. Stem Lagomorpha and the Antiquity of Glires. Science 307: 
1091.

In which rabbits and rodents are lumped with Gomphos nesting close to a clade 
of eurymylids (I know nothing of these) just outside of the lagos, rodents and 
all these just above the primates. 

The biggest question marks I have are these:

1. Do eurymlids have a large diastema like Gomphos, lagomorphs and rodents do?

2. I know that a basal primate, Plesiadapis has a large diastema, among other 
interesting characters.

3.  Did the two large diastemas, so close to each other on the tree, develop 
convergently? Or is there another connection? 

And in a worst-case scenario, wouldn't that be weird?

David Peters
St. Louis