1. Section of Vertebrate Paleontology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA
2. Oklahoma Museum of Natural History , 2401 Chautauqua, Norman, Oklahoma 73072, USA
3. Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, ulica Twarda 51/55, PL-00-818 Warszawa, Poland

Correspondence to: Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to R.L.C. (e-mail: Email: rlc@ou.edu).

Abstract

Marsupials, placentals and their close therian relatives possess complex (tribosphenic) molars that are capable of versatile occlusal functions. This functional complex is widely thought to be a key to the early diversification and evolutionary success of extant therians and their close relatives (tribosphenidans). Long thought to have arisen on northern continents, tribosphenic mammals have recently been reported from southern landmasses. The great age and advanced morphology of these new mammals has led to the alternative suggestion of a Gondwanan origin for the group. Implicit in both biogeographic hypotheses is the assumption that tribosphenic molars evolved only once in mammalian evolutionary history. Phylogenetic and morphometric analyses including these newly discovered taxa suggest a different interpretation: that mammals with tribosphenic molars are not monophyletic. Tribosphenic molars evolved independently in two ancient (holotherian) mammalian groups with different geographic distributions during the Jurassic/Early Cretaceous: an australosphenidan clade endemic to Gondwanan landmasses, survived by extant monotremes; and a boreosphenidan clade of Laurasian continents, including extant marsupials, placentals and their relatives.

1. Section of Vertebrate Paleontology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA
2. Oklahoma Museum of Natural History , 2401 Chautauqua, Norman, Oklahoma 73072, USA
3. Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, ulica Twarda 51/55, PL-00-818 Warszawa, Poland

Correspondence to: Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to R.L.C. (e-mail: Email: rlc@ou.edu).