Re: Afrotheria revisted

[Richard Hing <Richard.Hing@port.ac.uk>]

Hi all, just wondering if there was anybody out there with a pdf of this paper 
that they could send me please?
 
Cheers in advance.



--
 
Richard Hing
School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, 
University of Portsmouth, 
Burnaby Building, 
Burnaby Road, Portsmouth 
PO1 3QL
 
Phone number +44 (0)23 9284 2418
E-Mail: Richard.Hing@port.ac.uk
 
 


>>> Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com> 16/03/2007 01:08 >>>


Rodolphe Tabuce, Laurent Marivaux, Mohammed Adaci, Mustapha Bensalah, 
Jean-Louis Hartenberger, Mohammed Mahboubi, Fateh Mebrouk, Paul Tafforeau, 
and Jean-Jacques Jaeger (online). Late Tertiary mammals from North Africa 
reinforce the molecular Afrotheria clade. Proc. Royal Soc. London.  B274 + 
Electronic Supplementary Material.

Abstract: "The phylogenetic pattern and timing of the radiation of mammals, 
especially the
geographical origins of major crown clades, are areas of controversy among 
molecular biologists, morphologists and palaeontologists.  Molecular 
phylogeneticists have identified an Afrotheria clade,
which includes several taxa as different as tenrecs (Tenrecidae) , golden 
moles (Chrysochloridae), elephant-shrews (Macroscelididae), aardvarks 
(Tubulidentata) and paenungulates (elephants, sea
cows and hyracoids).  Molecular data also suggest a Cretaceous African 
origin for Afrotheria within
Placentalia followed by a long period of endemic evolution on the 
Afro-Arabian continent after the
mid-Cretaceous Gondwanan breakup (approx. 105-25 Myr ago).  However, there 
was no
morphological support for such a natural grouping so far.  Here, we report 
new dental and
postcranial evidence of Eocene stem hyrax and macroscelidid from North 
Africa that, for the first
time, provides a congruent phylogenetic view with the molecular Afrotheria 
clade.  These new
fossils imply, however, substantial changes regarding the historical 
biogeography of afrotheres.  Their
long period of isolation in Africa, as assumed by molecular inferences, is 
now to be reconsidered inasmuch as Eocene paenungulates and elephant-shrews 
are here found to be related to some Early
Tertiary Euramerican "hyopsodontid condylarths" (archaic hoofed mammals).  
As a result, stem
members of afrotherian clades are not strictly African but also include some 
Early Paleogene Holarctic
mammals."

_________________________________________________________________
Find a local pizza place, movie theater, and more*.then map the best route! 
http://maps.live.com/?icid=hmtag1&FORM=MGAC01