The earliest known eutherian mammal - PubMed (original) (raw)
. 2002 Apr 25;416(6883):816-22.
doi: 10.1038/416816a.
Affiliations
- PMID: 11976675
- DOI: 10.1038/416816a
The earliest known eutherian mammal
Qiang Ji et al. Nature. 2002.
Abstract
The skeleton of a eutherian (placental) mammal has been discovered from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of northeastern China. We estimate its age to be about 125 million years (Myr), extending the date of the oldest eutherian records with skull and skeleton by about 40 50 Myr. Our analyses place the new fossil at the root of the eutherian tree and among the four other known Early Cretaceous eutherians, and suggest an earlier and greater diversification of stem eutherians that occurred well before the molecular estimate for the diversification of extant placental superorders (104 64 Myr). The new eutherian has limb and foot features that are known only from scansorial (climbing) and arboreal (tree-living) extant mammals, in contrast to the terrestrial or cursorial (running) features of other Cretaceous eutherians. This suggests that the earliest eutherian lineages developed different locomotory adaptations, facilitating their spread to diverse niches in the Cretaceous.
Comment in
- Mammalian evolution: upwards and onwards.
Weil A. Weil A. Nature. 2002 Apr 25;416(6883):798-9. doi: 10.1038/416798a. Nature. 2002. PMID: 11976661 No abstract available.
Similar articles
- An Early Cretaceous tribosphenic mammal and metatherian evolution.
Luo ZX, Ji Q, Wible JR, Yuan CX. Luo ZX, et al. Science. 2003 Dec 12;302(5652):1934-40. doi: 10.1126/science.1090718. Science. 2003. PMID: 14671295 - Mammalian evolution: upwards and onwards.
Weil A. Weil A. Nature. 2002 Apr 25;416(6883):798-9. doi: 10.1038/416798a. Nature. 2002. PMID: 11976661 No abstract available. - Cretaceous eutherians and Laurasian origin for placental mammals near the K/T boundary.
Wible JR, Rougier GW, Novacek MJ, Asher RJ. Wible JR, et al. Nature. 2007 Jun 21;447(7147):1003-6. doi: 10.1038/nature05854. Nature. 2007. PMID: 17581585 - Evolution of the placenta in eutherian mammals.
Carter AM, Mess A. Carter AM, et al. Placenta. 2007 Apr;28(4):259-62. doi: 10.1016/j.placenta.2006.04.010. Epub 2006 Jun 15. Placenta. 2007. PMID: 16780944 Review. - Molecular evidence for the early divergence of placental mammals.
Easteal S. Easteal S. Bioessays. 1999 Dec;21(12):1052-8; discussion 1059. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1521-1878(199912)22:1<1052::AID-BIES9>3.0.CO;2-6. Bioessays. 1999. PMID: 10580990 Review.
Cited by
- Middle ear innovation in Early Cretaceous eutherian mammals.
Wang H, Wang Y. Wang H, et al. Nat Commun. 2023 Oct 26;14(1):6831. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-42606-7. Nat Commun. 2023. PMID: 37884521 Free PMC article. - Three new Jurassic euharamiyidan species reinforce early divergence of mammals.
Bi S, Wang Y, Guan J, Sheng X, Meng J. Bi S, et al. Nature. 2014 Oct 30;514(7524):579-84. doi: 10.1038/nature13718. Epub 2014 Sep 10. Nature. 2014. PMID: 25209669 - The evolution of brains from early mammals to humans.
Kaas JH. Kaas JH. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci. 2013 Jan;4(1):33-45. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1206. Epub 2012 Nov 8. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci. 2013. PMID: 23529256 Free PMC article. Review. - Adaptive dynamics under development-based genotype-phenotype maps.
Salazar-Ciudad I, Marín-Riera M. Salazar-Ciudad I, et al. Nature. 2013 May 16;497(7449):361-4. doi: 10.1038/nature12142. Epub 2013 May 1. Nature. 2013. PMID: 23636325 - The Gain and Loss of Cryptochrome/Photolyase Family Members during Evolution.
Deppisch P, Helfrich-Förster C, Senthilan PR. Deppisch P, et al. Genes (Basel). 2022 Sep 8;13(9):1613. doi: 10.3390/genes13091613. Genes (Basel). 2022. PMID: 36140781 Free PMC article.
Publication types
MeSH terms
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources