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Science 16 December 1983:
Vol. 222. no. 4629, pp. 1233 - 1235
DOI: 10.1126/science.222.4629.1233
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Articles

Mesozoic Mammals from Arizona: New Evidence on Mammalian Evolution

FARISH A. JENKINS JR. 1, A. W. CROMPTON 1, and WILLIAM R. DOWNS 2

1 Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
2 Department of Geology, Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff 86001

Knowledge of early mammalian evolution has been based on Old World Late Triassic-Early Jurassic faunas. The discovery of mammalian fossils of approximately equivalent age in the Kayenta Formation of northeastern Arizona gives evidence of greater diversity than known previously. A new taxon documents the development of an angular region of the jaw as a neomorphic process, and represents an intermediate stage in the origin of mammalian jaw musculature.

Submitted on May 19, 1983
Accepted on October 27, 1983


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Independent Origins of Middle Ear Bones in Monotremes and Therians.
T. H. Rich, J. A. Hopson, A. M. Musser, T. F. Flannery, and P. Vickers-Rich (2005)
Science 307, 910-914
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
EARLY MAMMALIAN RADIATIONS.
(2001)
Journal of Paleontology 75, 1214-1226
A New Mammaliaform from the Early Jurassic and Evolution of Mammalian Characteristics.
Z.-X. Luo, A. W. Crompton, and A.-L. Sun (2001)
Science 292, 1535-1540
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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