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The Bony Labyrinth in Diprotodontian Marsupial Mammals: Diversity in Extant and Extinct Forms and Relationships with Size and Phylogeny

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Abstract

The shape of the bony labyrinth of the inner ear was quantified using geometric morphometrics in a sample of 16 species of living marsupial diprotodontians, the extinct Diprotodon and Thylacoleo, and four outgroups. X-ray micro-computed tomography (μCT) and conventional computed tomography (CT) were used to acquire 3D data. The analyses of 22 landmarks revealed a strong body-mass related allometric pattern. A discriminant analysis on allometry-free labyrinthine shape served to evaluate the phylogenetic signal portion of the labyrinth for Macropodiformes, Phalangeroidea, Petauroidea, and Vombatiformes. The inner shape of Thylacoleo is consistent with its phylogenetic placement as a vombatiform.

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Acknowledgments

The Swiss National Science Foundation supported M. R. Sánchez-Villagra (grant No. 31003A-133032/1). We thank I. Horovitz (Los Angeles) for comments and language corrections. We thank the ANR Palasiafrica (ANR-08-JCJC-0017) and Laurent Marivaux for financial support. We express our gratitude to M. Ponce de León and C. Zollikofer (Anthropological Institute and Museum Zürich) and to the Montpellier RIO Imaging (MRI) platform, and R. Harper (Lyell McEwin Hospital, Adelaide) for giving access to scanning facilities. We thank C. Bens from the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris), L. Costeur from the Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, S. Jiquel from the ISE-M, M.-A. Binnie (South Australian Museum), and A. Camens (Flinders University, Adelaide), who kindly permitted access to the scanned specimens.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Montpellier 2, Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution (UMR-CNRS 5554), C.C. 64, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095, Montpellier Cedex 05, France

    Léanie Alloing-Séguier & Renaud Lebrun

  2. Palaeontologisches Institut und Museum, Karl Schmid-Strasse 4, 8006, Zürich, Switzerland

    Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra

  3. Earth Sciences Section, South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA, 5000, Australia

    Michael S. Y. Lee

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  1. Léanie Alloing-Séguier
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  2. Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra
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  4. Renaud Lebrun
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Correspondence to Renaud Lebrun.

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Alloing-Séguier, L., Sánchez-Villagra, M.R., Lee, M.S.Y. et al. The Bony Labyrinth in Diprotodontian Marsupial Mammals: Diversity in Extant and Extinct Forms and Relationships with Size and Phylogeny. J Mammal Evol 20, 191–198 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-013-9228-3

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