Systematics and Phylogeny of Paleocene-Eocene Nyctitheriidae (Mammalia, Eulipotyphla?) with Description of a new Species from the Late Paleocene of the Clarks Fork Basin, Wyoming, USA

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carly L. Manz ◽  
Jonathan I. Bloch
2010 ◽  
Vol 47 (12) ◽  
pp. 1451-1462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig S. Scott

Mixodectidae (Mammalia, Archonta) are an unusual, poorly known family of dermopteran-like mammals that have been discovered at several North American localities of primarily early Paleocene age. Among the three or four recognized mixodectid genera, Eudaemonema Simpson is perhaps one of the least understood, being known from only a few localities of late Torrejonian and earliest Tiffanian age. This paper reports on a new species of Eudaemonema from the late Paleocene of Alberta, Canada, that significantly extends the geographic and stratigraphic ranges of the genus. Eudaemonema webbi sp. nov. is known from middle and late Tiffanian localities in central and south central Alberta, and it represents the youngest and northernmost species of Eudaemonema so far discovered. E. webbi differs from the genotypic species E. cuspidata in being larger and in having a suite of dental characters (e.g., molariform posterior premolars, enlarged molar protocone and hypocone, development of a second grinding platform on the lower molars) that suggests an increased emphasis on grinding during mastication. E. webbi possesses several dental features (e.g., broad, shelf-like molar paraconid–paracristid, lingually shifted molar hypoconulid) that resemble those of cynocephalids (Mammalia, Dermoptera), with these resemblances interpreted herein as convergent. The occurrence of E. webbi at Gao Mine extends the stratigraphic range of Eudaemonema into the late Tiffanian (Ti5) and represents the youngest known record of Mixodectidae.


1995 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 1035 ◽  
Author(s):  
LJ Scriven ◽  
RS Hill

The oldest known Casuarinaceae macrofossils, from late Paleocene sediments at Lake Bungarby in New South Wales, are assigned to a new species of Casuarinaceae, Gymnostoma antiquum. The nearest living relatives of this species are the Papua New Guinean Gymnostoma species and in particular one as yet unnamed species. Previous problems relating to the preparation, identification and description of Casuarinaceae macrofossils are examined and clarified. The ecology of both living Gymnostoma and G. antiquum are discussed. The decrease in catastrophic disturbance and climate seasonality during the Cenozoic were probably major contributing factors leading to the current distribution of Gymnostoma.


1984 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 1262-1267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard C. Fox

Nearly complete lower dentitions (with c?, p2–4, m1–3) and the first discovered upper dentitions (with P2–4, M1–3) are described and illustrated for the late Paleocene primate Micromomys Szalay. These fossils, from the Paskapoo Formation of central Alberta, Canada, represent a new species, the geologically earliest known species of the genus. Micromomys appears to have been a primitive microsyopid most closely related to the early Paleocene Purgatorius Van Valen and Sloan and the middle Paleocene Palenochtha Gidley; a relationship between Micromomys and the early Eocene Tinimomys Szalay may not be as near as previous workers had supposed.Micromomys is the smallest primate known and was probably insectivorous. Its occurrence with the rare European primate Saxonella Russell, a new, primitive carpolestid, and an unusual mammal possibly related to palaeanodonts documents a facies not yet encountered in other Paleocene mammal local faunas, in Canada or elsewhere.


1988 ◽  
Vol 62 (01) ◽  
pp. 139-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregg F. Gunnell

A new species of Unuchinia, U. diaphanes, is described from the Torrejonian Land Mammal Age, middle Paleocene, of North America. This species extends the temporal range of Unuchinia, previously documented only from the late Paleocene Tiffanian Land Mammal Age of North America. This species provides new dental evidence to support the placement of Unuchinia in a separate subfamily, Unuchiniinae, distinct from that of other apatemyids. Unuchiniinae differ from other Apatemyidae by the retention of two enlarged anterior teeth instead of one. Additionally, these teeth are implanted more vertically and are less procumbent than is the single enlarged anterior tooth typical of other apatemyids.


1978 ◽  
Vol 56 (9) ◽  
pp. 1136-1152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leo J. Hickey ◽  
Rayma Kempinsky Peterson

Zingiberopsis attenuata Hickey and Peterson is a new species of monocotyledon from the Paleocene Paskapoo Formation of Alberta. Leaves of this species with their parallel veins grouped into three size sets are intermediate between the Late Cretaceous Zingiberopsis magnifolia (Knowlton) Hickey, new combination, with four discrete sets and Zingiberopsis isonervosa Hickey, of late Paleocene and early Eocene age, with only one set. Zingiberopsis has large, elliptic to ovate leaves with a costa composed of a number of concurrent strands, a set of parallel veins emerging at low angles from the costa, and relatively distantly spaced transverse veins running between adjacent parallel veins. Morphology of the genus matches that of Alpinia in the Zingiberaceae except for greater irregularity of the parallel vein set at and near their origin on the costa and the lack of any evidence of a ligule on the petiole as in Alpinia. Species of Zingiberopsis demonstrate a clear trend toward loss of the wider parallel vein subsets over the approximately 20-million-year range of the genus. In addition, the overlooked character of the arrangement of the parallel vein subsets across the width of the leaf may have potential in the taxonomic determination of monocotyledonous leaves.


2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 701-711 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Peláez-Campomanes ◽  
N. López-Martínez ◽  
M.A. Álvarez-Sierra ◽  
R. Daams

A new species of multituberculate mammal,Hainina pyrenaican. sp. is described from Fontllonga-3 (Tremp Basin, Southern Pyrenees, Spain), correlated to the later part of chron C29r just above the K/T boundary. This taxon represents the earliest European Tertiary mammal recovered so far, and is related to otherHaininaspecies from the European Paleocene. A revision of the species ofHaininaallows recognition of a new species,H. vianeyaen. sp. from the Late Paleocene of Cernay (France). The genus is included in the family Kogaionidae Rãdulescu and Samson, 1996 from the Late Cretaceous of Romania on the basis of unique dental characters. The Kogaionidae had a peculiar masticatory system with a large, blade-like lower p4, similar to that of advanced Ptilodontoidea, but occluding against two small upper premolars, interpreted as P4 and P5, instead of a large upper P4. The endemic European Kogaionidae derive from an Early Cretaceous group with five premolars, and evolved during the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene. The genusHaininarepresents a European multituberculate family that survived the K/T boundary mass extinction event.


2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig S Scott

A new species of the ptilodontid multituberculate genus Prochetodon (Mammalia, Allotheria) from the Paleocene Paskapoo Formation of Alberta, Canada, is described. Prochetodon speirsae sp. nov. is the oldest discovered species of the genus, extending the temporal range of Prochetodon earlier into the Paleocene. It exhibits a mosaic of primitive and derived dental features suggestive of a position phylogenetically intermediate between Ptilodus and Prochetodon. Newly discovered specimens from the late Paleocene Gao Mine locality are referred tentatively to Prochetodon foxi. The occurrence of a primitive form of Prochetodon in sediments of early Tiffanian age suggests the evolutionary history of the genus is more complex than previously appreciated. Prochetodon joins a number of well-documented, progressive mammalian taxa making their first appearance in the Western Interior of North America at higher latitudes, well before their first known occurrence in the United States, suggesting a possible origin and immigration from currently unsampled habitats.


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