The placental mammal ancestor and the post-KPg radiation of placentals

O´LEARY MA; BLOCH JI; FLYNN JJ; GAUDIN TJ; GIALLOMBARDO A; GIANNINI, NP; GOLDBERG SL; KRAATZ BP; LUO Z-X; MENG J; NI X; NOVACEK MJ; PERINI FA; RANDALL ZS; ROUGIER GR; SARGIS EJ; SILCOX MT; SIMMONS NB; SPAULDING M; VELAZCO PM; WEKSLER M; WIBLE JE; CIRRANELLO AL

SCIENCE

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE

Año: 2013 vol. 339 p. 662 - 667

0036-8075

To discover interordinal relationships of living and fossil placental mammals and the time oforigin of placentals relative to the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, we scored 4541phenomic characters de novo for 86 fossil and living species. Combining these data with molecularsequences, we obtained a phylogenetic tree that, when calibrated with fossils, shows thatcrown clade Placentalia and placental orders originated after the K-Pg boundary. Many nodesdiscovered using molecular data are upheld, but phenomic signals overturn molecular signals toshow Sundatheria (Dermoptera + Scandentia) as the sister taxon of Primates, a close linkbetween Proboscidea (elephants) and Sirenia (sea cows), and the monophyly of echolocatingChiroptera (bats). Our tree suggests that Placentalia first split into Xenarthra and Epitheria;extinct New World species are the oldest members of Afrotheria.