RE: origin of bats

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu>]

> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] 
> On Behalf Of David Peters
>
> thank you Tim, for the reference:
> 
> TW wrote: Yes, exactly. The paper that David (Marjanovic) is 
> referring to - and which David (Peters) really needs to read - is...
> 
> 
> Nancy B. Simmons, Kevin L. Seymour, Jörg Habersetzer, & Gregg 
> F. Gunnell (2007). Primitive Early Eocene bat from Wyoming 
> and the evolution of flight and echolocation. Nature 451: 818-821

2008, actually.

> 
> Placing this bat, Onychonycteris, into an established 
> cladogram shifts no taxa. Yes, indeed it is the most 
> primitive bat in the cladogram. The civets Protictis, 
> Nandinia and Ptilocercus remain non-volent outgroup taxa.
> 
?!? The civets are not included in the phylogenetic analysis in this paper!

The outgroup taxa used were Tupaia (tree shrew), Erinaceus (hedgehog), Sus
(pig), Felis (cat), Cynocephalus (dermopteran), run either as unconstrained
outgroups or constrained to a molecularly-based topology.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216                        
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661               

Faculty Director, Earth, Life & Time Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/
Fax: 301-405-0796

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Department of Geology
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