Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Review
Nature 450, 1011-1019 (13 December 2007) | doi:10.1038/nature06277
nature jobs
Associate Professor / Professor ? NCRIS TERN Director
- University Of Queensland, Australia
- Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Ramalingaswami Fellowship
- Department of Biotechnology
- New Delhi India
Transformation and diversification in early mammal evolution
Zhe-Xi Luo1
Abstract
Evolution of the earliest mammals shows successive episodes of diversification. Lineage-splitting in Mesozoic mammals is coupled with many independent evolutionary experiments and ecological specializations. Classic scenarios of mammalian morphological evolution tend to posit an orderly acquisition of key evolutionary innovations leading to adaptive diversification, but newly discovered fossils show that evolution of such key characters as the middle ear and the tribosphenic teeth is far more labile among Mesozoic mammals. Successive diversifications of Mesozoic mammal groups multiplied the opportunities for many dead-end lineages to iteratively evolve developmental homoplasies and convergent ecological specializations, parallel to those in modern mammal groups.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
NEWS AND VIEWS
Mammalian evolution Relationships to chew overNature News and Views (04 Jan 2001)
Some neglected relativesNature News and Views (14 Sep 1995)
See all 3 matches for News And ViewsRESEARCH
A new eutriconodont mammal and evolutionary development in early mammalsNature Article (15 Mar 2007)
Convergent dental adaptations in pseudo-tribosphenic and tribosphenic mammalsNature Letters to Editor (01 Nov 2007)
See all 14 matches for Research