ISSN:0024-4082    

DOI:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1994.tb00308.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0024-4082    

DOI:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1994.tb00309.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The periotic ofMoeritheriumis described for the first time. A number of potentially autapomorphic features are identified; however, in common with living elephants and seacows the moerithere periotic is shown to lack the fenestra cochleae and aqueductus cochleae typical of therian mammals. Instead, it possesses a secondarily undivided perilymphatic foramen, a feature considered to be a synapomorphy uniting Proboscidea and Sirenia within the Tethytheria. The supposedly more derived fossil proboscidean,Mimidotherium, along with the primitive fossil sirenianProrastomus, possess the typical therian pattern of openings to the pars cochlearis of the periotic. It is therefore unclear whether the condition in Recent tethytheres is homologous or independently derived. It is argued that the presence inMoeritheriumof a suite of periotic characters more derived than those inMimidotheriumundermines the primitive status of moeritheres relative to numidotheres and all other Proboscidea, and therefore weakens the hypothesis of a secondary reversal to a more primitive auditory region inNumidotheriurn.The biological role of auditory specializations in Recent tethytheres is shown to have been very different, and it is argued that this functional disparity extends to the most primitive members of each order. Demonstrable homoplasy in structure and lack of functional congruence in basal members of both Sirenia and Proboscidea are deemed to be indicative of an independent acquisition of similar structures in the ear region of Recent tethytheres.

ISSN:0024-4082    

DOI:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1994.tb00310.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

With the benefit of newly collected material, primitive equoids are analysed cladistically to determine the detailed relationships of the families Equidae and Palaeotheriidae. The most primitive equid is shown to bePliolophus. Cymbalophus cuniculusand‘Hyracotherium’ sandraeare closely related stem equoids. The Pachynolophidae are not equoids, but most closely related to the primitive tapiromorph family Isectolophidae.Hallensiais sister to these two and therefore also not an equoid.Hyracotheriumis restricted to the type speciesH. leporinumOwen, part of whose lower dentition is made known for the first time. It is closest to a restricted genusPropachynolophuswithin the family Palaeotheriidae. The original concept ofPropachynolophusis polyphyletic. Using the cladogram, newly extended stratigraphic ranges and palaeogeography, an attempt is made to reconstruct the very early speciation and biogeographical history of the group.‘Cymbalophus’ hookeriGodinot is recombined in the genusPachynolophus and ‘H.’ pernixinPliolophus. Hallensia louisisp. nov. and Propachynolophus level sp. nov. ar

ISSN:0024-4082    

DOI:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1994.tb00311.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The giant deer,Megaloceros giganteus, is best known from its fossil occurrences in Ireland around 11 000 years ago, but has a history across Europe and Western Asia spanning 300 000–400 000 years. This paper reports a biometric study of variation and evolution in the giant deer through its history. Most early populations were as large in body size as the Irish sample, but some were distincdy smaller and others had markedly shorter limbs. Thickened skull and mandibular bones, especially marked in males, are constant throughout die species' history. Some earlier populations had anders which were relatively smaller, more upright and differing in other details from the celebrated Irish specimens. Observed variation in body and antler form is discussed in terms of changing palaeoenvironments. Interpretation of the fighting or display roles ofM. giganteusantlers needs to take account of their differing forms through tim

ISSN:0024-4082    

DOI:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1994.tb00312.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

A new analysis of the morphology of the cranium of the early Miocene speciesGomphotherium annectens(Matsumoto, 1925) alters significantly previous hypotheses on the differentiation of Miocene Elephantoidea. The gomphotheres, excluding shovel‐tusked mastodonts and choerolophodonts, are known to be a paraphyletic grouping: a stem group for elephantids+stegodontids. From parsimony analyses it seems very likely that early Miocene Old World so‐called gomphotheres(Gomphotherium ‘annectensgroup’) are not closely related to other gomph

ISSN:0024-4082    

DOI:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1994.tb00313.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Cervids of the Forest Bed Formation were studied by the present author in a paper now 40 years old. Some identifications and generic attributions are here revised. The fossils fall into one, or possibly two, distinct levels of the late Villefranchian (Early Pleistocene) and in the earlier Middle Pleistocene (Galerian, =Cromerian). In the earlier paper four elk species were recognized; these are now reduced to two:Cewalces gallicus, from the younger Late Villefranchian, andCewalces latifrons, from the Galerian. A skull from Mundesley is proposed as the neotype of the latter, to replace a poorly diagnostic original holotype. These species are not closely related to the livingAlces alcesbut are forerunners of the North AmericanCewalces scotti.The phylogeny of Pleistocene elks is discussed in this context. Giant deer are represented by two genera, with three species:Megaceroides verticomis, Megaceroides dawkinsiandMegaloceros savini.Some fossils misinterpreted in the former paper are revised.Megaceroides dawkinsiseems to be endemic to Great Britain, raising an intriguing problem of palaeogeography.

ISSN:0024-4082    

DOI:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1994.tb00314.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The Middle Jurassic Kilmaluag Formation (previously known as the Ostracod Limestones) of the Great Estuarine Group in Skye, Scotland, has yielded an assemblage of Bathonian terrestrial vertebrates including mammals, tritylodonts, crocodiles and turdes. This paper presents the first description of Jurassic lepidosauromorph reptiles from Scodand. Two genera are represented: a crown‐group lizard referable to the late Jurassic/early Cretaceous genusParamacellodus(Squamata: Scincomorpha) and a stem‐group lepidosauromorph,MarmoreltaEvans, 1991, first described from the late Bathonian of Kirdington, Oxfordshire. The Skye material ofMarmorettaincludes the first associated skull and postcranial remains. These confirm the original description and reconstruction, and provide fürther support for a hypothesis of relationship which placesMarmorettaas the sister taxon of Lepidosa

ISSN:0024-4082    

DOI:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1994.tb00315.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

A partial skull and skeleton of a small, juvenile plesiosaur, part of the historically important Philpot Collection from Lyme Regis, England, is described. It is assigned tentatively toEwycMdus arcuatus(Owen, 1840) and has a mosaic of features which make it difficult to place in a superfamily. The characters of the posterior elements of the skull and post‐dentary bones are close to those expected in a plesiosauroid, whereas the anterior dentition and symphysis of the lower jaw are more typical of a pliosauroid. The specimen is placed in the Pliosauroidea pending a phylogenetic revision of the Lower Jurassic Plesiosauria. From a reconstruction of the dentition and jaw‐closing muscles, it is thought to have been a predator on soft‐bodied or lighdy armoured prey, such as belemnoids, ammonites or small

ISSN:0024-4082    

DOI:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1994.tb00316.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The Bristol Institution for the Advancement of Science, Literature and the Arts opened in 1823. The science expounded at the Institution was an anti‐Lamarckian ideology based on Paleyan natural dieology and the Aristotelean Great Chain of Being. Pioneering work on Jurassic marine reptiles by W. D. Conybeare and H. T. De la Beche in 1821–1824 used material from its collection, and it was at the Institution that Conybeare first publicly announced the discovery of the first complete plesiosaur. In the early 1830s, Henry Riley and the second curator Samuel Stutchbury first described Permo‐Triassic reptiles includingThecodontosaurus.Riley was one of the earliest exponents of Geoffroyan comparative anatomy in Britain. The Institution declined under financial pressures, eventually to be taken over by Bristol City Council in 1894. Its main contribution to science was its collection of fossil and Recent vertebrates. Louis Agassiz drew upon its fossil fishes forPoissans fossiles, and Richard Owen used the reptiles for his British Association Report of 1841–1843. Much of the collection was destroyed in 1940 but much also

ISSN:0024-4082    

DOI:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1994.tb00317.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY