Abstract
THE distinctive soft anatomy and reproductive biology of marsupials sets them apart as a unique group within mammals. These features are, of course, absent in fossils, so it is difficult to determine marsupial origins and evolution: many of the proposed dental and skeletal characters are controversial1 or primitive1,2. A contribution of the alisphenoid bone to the tympanic bulla of the skull has long been considered a reliable diagnostic feature of the group1–5. But this feature is lacking both in the borhyaenoid marsupial Mayulestes ferox, which I describe here, and the didelphoid Pucadelphys andinus6,7, both from the early Palaeocene of Bolivia7–9. Comparison with younger taxa suggests that this feature appeared several times independently within the group, and is thus an inappropriate defining character. What, then, is a marsupial?
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de Muizon, C. A new carnivorous marsupial from the Palaeocene of Bolivia and the problem of marsupial monophyly. Nature 370, 208–211 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/370208a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/370208a0
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