Abstract
The divergence and earliest radiations of the two great groups of living mammals, marsupials and placentals, is presumed to have occurred sometime early in the Cretaceous1. Knowledge of forms from this time period is therefore essential to understanding the evolutionary and biogeographic history of mammals. Marsupials and placentals are comparatively well known in the latest Cretaceous (Campanian, Maastrichtian), where they are represented in a relatively well documented succession of faunas in North America and (for placentals only) Asia2,3. Before that time, various archaic presumed relatives4 are known from scattered North American, European and Asian localities of early Cretaceous age5. Recent discoveries in Asia6,7 seem to support an earlier suggestion1 that placentals were already well established on that continent by the middle of the Cretaceous. Because of a persisting gap in the New World fossil record before the first appearance of unequivocal marsupials in the early Campanian8, the early history of marsupials has remained obscure. We describe here the oldest known marsupial mammal, from the earliest Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of western North America and discuss its implications for the origin and biogeography of marsupials.
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Cifelli, R., Eaton, J. Marsupial from the earliest Late Cretaceous of Western US. Nature 325, 520–522 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/325520a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/325520a0
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