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Science 21 November 1997:
Vol. 278. no. 5342, pp. 1438 - 1442
DOI: 10.1126/science.278.5342.1438
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Reports

A Tribosphenic Mammal from the Mesozoic of Australia

Thomas H. Rich, Patricia Vickers-Rich, Andrew Constantine, Timothy F. Flannery, Lesley Kool, Nicholas van Klaveren

A small, well-preserved dentary of a tribosphenic mammal with the most posterior premolar and all three molars in place has been found in Aptian (Early Cretaceous) rocks of southeastern Australia. In most respects, dental and mandibular anatomy of the specimen is similar to that of primitive placental mammals. With the possible exception of a single tooth reported as Eocene in age, terrestrial placentals are otherwise unknown in Australia until the Pliocene. This possible Australian placental is similar in age to Prokennalestes from the late Aptian/early Albian Khoboor Beds of Mongolia, the oldest currently accepted member of the infraclass Placentalia.

T. H. Rich, Museum of Victoria, Post Office Box 666E, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia.
P. Vickers-Rich, A. Constantine, L. Kool, N. van Klaveren, Earth Sciences Department, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3001, Australia.
T. F. Flannery, Australian Museum, 6 College Avenue, Sydney South, New South Wales 2000, Australia.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Four New Mitochondrial Genomes and the Increased Stability of Evolutionary Trees of Mammals from Improved Taxon Sampling.
Y.-H. Lin, P. A. McLenachan, A. R. Gore, M. J. Phillips, R. Ota, M. D. Hendy, and D. Penny (2002)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 19, 2060-2070
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Dinosaurs, dragons, and dwarfs: The evolution of maximal body size.
G. P. Burness, J. Diamond, and T. Flannery (2001)
PNAS
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Evolution of the recombination signal sequences in the Ig heavy-chain variable region locus of mammals.
A. Hassanin, R. Golub, S. M. Lewis, and G. E. Wu (2000)
PNAS 97, 11415-11420
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Dinosaurs, dragons, and dwarfs: The evolution of maximal body size.
G. P. Burness, J. Diamond, and T. Flannery (2001)
PNAS 98, 14518-14523
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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