A new species of Carpolestes (Mammalia, Plesiadapoidea) from the late Paleocene of southern Wyoming: assessing changes in size and shape during the evolution of a key anatomical feature

A new and phylogenetically basal species of Carpolestes, the youngest and most derived genus of the plesiadapoid family Carpolestidae in North America, is described from a late Tiffanian (Ti-5) site in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, USA. Carpolestids differ from closely related plesiadapoid clades in h...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Historical biology 2018-11, Vol.30 (8), p.1031-1042
Main Authors: Mattingly, Spencer G., Sanisidro, Oscar, Beard, K. Christopher
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Biological evolution
Genetic transformation
geometric morphometrics
Mathematical morphology
Morphometry
New species
Paleocene
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Primatomorpha
Tiffanian
Titanium base alloys
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A new and phylogenetically basal species of Carpolestes, the youngest and most derived genus of the plesiadapoid family Carpolestidae in North America, is described from a late Tiffanian (Ti-5) site in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, USA. Carpolestids differ from closely related plesiadapoid clades in having an enlarged, multicuspidate, blade-like P 4 that is partly convergent on that of multituberculates and other mammals showing plagiaulacoid dental adaptations. With some notable exceptions, the evolutionary history of North American carpolestids is characterized by the progressive development of larger and more elaborate P 4 blades through time. In particular, species of the monophyletic genus Carpolestes differ from species assigned to the earlier and apparently paraphyletic genus Carpodaptes in terms of both the size and shape of their P 4 . A geometric morphometric analysis reveals that, with respect to P 4 shape, the closest approximation to the highly derived morphology of Carpolestes is made by Carpodaptes hobackensis, which is one of the smallest known species of Carpodaptes. In contrast, the largest known species of Carpodaptes, Carpodaptes jepseni, has a P 4 that falls within the metric range of variation for species of Carpolestes, yet Carpodaptes jepseni shows a uniquely derived P 4 shape that seems to exclude it from any special phylogenetic relationship with Carpolestes. A phylogenetic analysis based on dental characters reconstructs Carpodaptes hobackensis as the sister group of the Carpolestes clade. Shape seems to have been a more important factor than size during the final transformation of the blade-like P 4 of North American carpolestids. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:212F9ECC-DA9A-44F8-BE7E-43F3EBAD636A
ISSN:0891-2963
1029-2381
DOI:10.1080/08912963.2017.1328509