Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Reassessment of the Morphology and Taxonomic Status of the Earliest Herpetotheriid Marsupials of Europe

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Mammalian Evolution Aims and scope Submit manuscript

An Erratum to this article was published on 19 April 2012

Abstract

The earliest Eocene locality of Dormaal (Belgium) has provided the oldest Cenozoic herpetotheriid marsupials of Europe. No herpetotheriid has ever been reported earlier than the Eocene in Europe, except for a questionable single upper molar from the Upper Cretaceous of the Belgian/Dutch border. The systematics of the herpetotheriids of Dormaal was formerly based on only a dozen dental specimens, which were assigned, after several revisions, to two species Peratherium constans and Amphiperatherium brabantense. Most importantly, these two species were considered at the root of most of the hepetotheriid lineages of the European Paleogene. Here we report a large sample of about 400 new dental remains that allow a better definition of both species as well as a testing of their systematic status. The evidence of significant morphological variability leads us to reconsider the diagnosis of Peratherium constans and to question the validity of Amphiperatherium brabantense. This study highlights that the primitive species Peratherium constans and Amphiperatherium brabantense are hardly distinguishable from each other, and therefore conclude that Peratherium constans was the only marsupial present at Dormaal. The important morphological variation exhibited by this herpetotheriid is similar to the variability observed in the type-species Peratherium elegans and in other fossil and extant metatherians. Consequently, our results suggest that several Amphiperatherium species from the Eocene could represent variants of the genus Peratherium. The question of the Amphiperatherium presence in Europe is therefore raised and a thorough discriminate analysis of both genera should be conducted in later works.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bajpai S, Kapur VV, Thewissen JGM, Tiwari BN, Das DP (2005) First fossil marsupials from India: early Eocene Indodelphis n. gen. and Jaegeria n. gen. from Vastan lignite mine, District Surat, Gujarat. J Paleontol Soc India 50: 147–151

    Google Scholar 

  • Case JA, Goin FJ, Woodburne MO (2005) “South American” marsupials from the Late Cretaceous of North America and the origin of marsupial cohorts. J Mammal Evol 12: 461–494

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clemens WA (1966) Fossil mammals of the Type Lance Formation Wyoming. Part II. Marsupialia. Univ Calif Publ Geol Sci 62: 1–122

    Google Scholar 

  • Crochet J-Y (1969) Révision du genre Peratherium Aymard 1849 (Marsupialia). CR Acad Sci Paris, Ser D 268: 2038–2041

    Google Scholar 

  • Crochet J-Y (1979) Diversité systématique des Didelphidae (Marsupialia) européens tertiaires. Geobios 12: 365-378

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crochet J-Y (1980) Les marsupiaux du Tertiaire d’Europe. Editions de la Fondation Singer-Polignac, Paris, 279 pp

  • Crochet J-Y, Antoine P-O, Benammi M, Iqbal N, Marivaux L, Métais G, Welcomme JL (2007) A herpetotheriid marsupial from the Oligocene of Bugti Hills, Balochistan, Pakistan. Acta Palaeontol Pol 52: 633–637

    Google Scholar 

  • Daxner-Höck G, Badamgarav D, Erbajeva M (2010) Oligocene stratigraphy based on a sediment-basalt association in Central Mongolia (Taatsiin Gol and Taatsiin Tsagaan Nuur Area, Valley of Lakes): review of a Mongolian-Austrian project. Vertebrat PalAsiat 10: 348–366

    Google Scholar 

  • Filhol H (1879) Étude des mammifères fossiles de Saint-Gérand-le-Puy (Allier). Ann Sci Géol 10: 1–252

    Google Scholar 

  • Gingerich PD, Smith T (2006) Paleocene-Eocene land mammals from three new latest Clarkforkian and earliest Wasatchian wash sites at Polecat Bench in the northern Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. Contrib Mus Paleontol Univ Mich 30: 245–303

    Google Scholar 

  • Goin FJ (2003) Early marsupial radiations in South America. In: Jones M, Dickman C, Archer M (eds) Predators With Pouches: the Biology of Carnivorous Marsupials. CSIRO, Collingwood, Australia, pp 30–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Goin FJ, Candela AM (2004) New Paleogene marsupials from the Amazonian basin, southeastern Perú. In: Campbell KE Jr (ed) The Paleogene Mammalian Fauna of Santa Rosa, Amazonian Perú. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Science Series, Los Angeles, pp 15–60

  • Grimes S, Yans J, Grassineau N, Bugler M, Steurbaut E, Smith T (2006) The first stable isotope records from the Dormaal Member and its earliest modern mammal fauna, Belgium. Abstract book of the International Congress on Climate and Biota of the early Paleogene (Bilbao, 11–17 June 2006): 55

  • Hershkovitz P (1997) Composition of the family Didelphidae Gray, 1821 (Didelphoidea: Marsupialia), with a review of the morphology and behavior of the included four-eyed pouched opossums of the genus Philander Tiedemann, 1808. Fieldiana Zool 86: 1–103

    Google Scholar 

  • Hooker JJ, Sánchez-Villagra MR, Goin FJ, Simons EL, Attia Y, Seiffert ER (2008) The origin of Afro-Arabian “didelphimorph” marsupials. Palaeontology 51: 635–648

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horovitz I, Ladevèze S, Argot C, Hooker JJ, Macrini TE, Martin T, Kurz C, Muizon C de, Sánchez-Villagra MR (2008) The anatomy of Herpetotherium fugax Cope 1873, a metatherian from the Oligocene of North America. Palaeontographica Abt A 284: 109–141

    Google Scholar 

  • Kappelman J, Mass MC, Sen S, Alpagut B, Lunkka JP (1996) A new Tertiary mammalian fauna from Turkey and its paleobiogeographic significance. J Vertebr Paleontol 16: 592–595

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirsch JAW, Lapointe F-J, Springer MS (1997) DNA-hybridisation studies of marsupials and their implications for metatherian classification. Aust J Zool 45: 211–280

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Koenigswald Wv (1970) Peratherium (Marsupialia) im Ober-Oligozän und Miozän von Europa. Bayer Akad Wiss Math-Natur Kl Abh (NF) 144: 1–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurz C (2007) The opossum-like marsupials (Didelphimorphia and Peradectia, Marsupialia, Mammalia) from the Eocene of Messel and Geiseltal - ecomorphology, diversity and palaeogeography. Kaupia 15: 3–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Ladevèze S, Muizon C de, Beck RM, Germain D, Cespedes-Paz R (2011) Earliest evidence of mammalian social behaviour in the basal Tertiary of Bolivia. Nature 474: 83–86

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Marshall LG, Case JA, Woodburne MO 1990. Phylogenetic relationships of the families of marsupials. In: Genoways HH (ed) Current Mammalogy. Plenum Press, New York, pp 433–505

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin JE, Case JA, Jagt JWM, Schulp AS, Mulder EWA (2005) A new European marsupial indicates a Late Cretaceous high-latitude transatlantic dispersal route. J Mammal Evol 12: 495–511

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKenna MC, Bell SK (1997) Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. Columbia University Press, New York, 640 pp

    Google Scholar 

  • Qi T, Beard KC, Wang B, Dawson MR, Guo J, Li C (1996) The Shanghuang mammalian fauna, middle Eocene of Jiangsu: history of discovery and significance. Vertebrat PalAsiat 34: 202–214

    Google Scholar 

  • Quinet GE (1964) Morphologie dentaire des mammifères éocènes de Dormaal. Bull Group Int Rech Sci Stomatol Odontol 2: 1–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Quinet GE (1969) Apport de l’étude de la faune mammalienne de Dormaal à la stratigraphie générale du Paléocène supérieur européen et à la théorie synthétique de la molaire mammalienne. Mém Inst R Sci Nat Bel (Prem Sér) 162: 1–188

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutot A, Van Den Broeck E (1884) Explication de la feuille de Landen. Musée royal d’Histoire naturelle de Belgique. Service de la Carte géologique: 1–112

  • Sánchez-Villagra MR, Ladevèze S, Horovitz I, Argot C, Hooker JJ, Macrini T, Martin T, Moore-Fay S, Muizon C de, Schmelzle T, Asher RJ (2007) Exceptionally preserved North American Paleogene metatherians: adaptations and discovery of a major gap in the opossum fossil record. Biol Lett 3: 318–322

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt-Kittler N, ed (1987) International Symposium on Mammalian Biostratigraphy and Paleoecology of the European Paleogene. Münchner Geowiss Abh A 10: 312 pp

  • Simpson GG (1930) Post-Mesozoic Marsupialia. In: Pompeckj JF (ed) Fossilium Catalogus. I: Animalia. Pars 47. W. Junk, Berlin, pp 1–87

  • Smith R, Smith T, Sudre J (1996) Diacodexis gigasei n. sp., le plus ancien Artiodactyle (Mammalia) belge, proche de la limite Paléocène-Eocène. Bull Inst R Sci Nat Belg Sci Terre 66: 177–186

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith T, Rana RS, Missiaen P, Rose KD, Sahni A, Singh H, Singh L (2007) High bat (Chiroptera) diversity in the early Eocene of India. Naturwissenschaften 94: 1003–1009

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Smith T, Rose KD, Gingerich PD (2006) Rapid Asia–Europe–North America geographic dispersal of earliest Eocene primate Teilhardina during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103: 11223–11227

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Smith T, Smith R (2001) The creodonts (Mammalia, Ferae) from the Paleocene-Eocene transition in Belgium (Tienen Formation, MP7). Belg J Zool 131: 117–135

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith T, Smith R (2010) A new ‘miacid’ carnivoran from the earliest Eocene of Europe and North America. Acta Palaeontol Pol 55: 761–764

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teilhard de Chardin P (1927) Les mammifères de l’Eocène inférieur de la Belgique. Mém Mus R Sci Nat Belg (Prem Sér) 36: 1–33

    Google Scholar 

  • Vullo R, Gheerbrant E, Muizon C de, Néraudeau D (2009) The oldest modern therian mammal from Europe and its bearing on stem marsupial paleobiogeography. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106: 19910–19915

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank A. Folie (IRSNB), P. Tassy, C. Argot, C. Sagne, V. Pernègre, and L. Cazes (UMR 7207 MNHN) for preparing and giving access to the material, and J. Cillis and E. De Bast (IRSNB), and P. Loubry (UMR 7207 MNHN) for producing the SEM photographs. We are grateful to J. R. Wible, C. de Muizon (MNHN), and an anonymous reviewer for their comments, which greatly improved the manuscript.

This work was supported by Research Project MO/36/020 of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Sandrine Ladevèze

    Present address: UMR 7207 CNRS (CR2P), USM 203, Département Histoire de la Terre, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, CP38, 8, rue Buffon, 75231, Paris cedex 05, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paleontology, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, 29 rue Vautier, 1000, Brussels, Belgium

    Sandrine Ladevèze, Richard Smith & Thierry Smith

Authors
  1. Sandrine Ladevèze
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Richard Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Thierry Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sandrine Ladevèze.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ladevèze, S., Smith, R. & Smith, T. Reassessment of the Morphology and Taxonomic Status of the Earliest Herpetotheriid Marsupials of Europe. J Mammal Evol 19, 249–261 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-012-9195-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-012-9195-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation