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Did some extinct South American native ungulates arise from an afrothere ancestor? A critical appraisal of Avilla and Mothé’s (2021) Sudamericungulata – Panameridiungulata hypothesis

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Abstract

The debate regarding the evolutionary relationships of the extinct South American native ungulates (SANUs) to the major placental clades Afrotheria and Boreoeutheria is exciting and has profound implications for our understanding of their early diversification and paleobiogeography. Although this controversy has not yet proven resolvable using morphological evidence, paleoproteomic and ancient DNA analyses support that at least some SANUs (i.e., Litopterna and Notoungulata) are members of Boreoeutheria, closely related to Perissodactyla (the Panperissodactyla hypothesis). Here we present a critical assessment of a recently published morphology-based study that claims that: (1) some SANUs (i.e., Notoungulata, Astrapotheria, Pyrotheria, and Xenungulata) represent a monophyletic supraordinal group, the Sudamericungulata, closely related to the Afrotherian hyracoids; and (2) the remaining SANUs (i.e., Litopterna and Didolodontidae, placed in a separate taxon, Panameridiungulata) are boreoeutherian in origin. Because this proposal (hereafter, the Sudamericungulata - Panameridiungulata or S-P hypothesis) is based on an incongruously reduced sample of boreoeutherians (including only a single perissodactyl) and inadequate character sampling restricted to dental and mandibular traits, it cannot be regarded as a satisfactory test of SANU relationships. Moreover, the S-P hypothesis fails to recover monophyletic Boreoeutheria and/or Afrotheria, making it incompatible with all well-established hypotheses of placental diversification. We find that the introduction of molecular constraints forcing the monophyly of Boreoeutheria and Afrotheria produces new trees, all recovering Sudamericungulata and Panameridiungulata nested within Boreoeutheria. These results are consistent with our analyses using a corrected version of the S-P matrix. Although we acknowledge that boreoeutherian affinities have still not been conclusively demonstrated for all nominal SANUs, it is beyond argument that any further credible testing must be based on much more exhaustive surveys than are currently available.

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All data generated and analyzed during this study are included in the present published article and associated supplementary files.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Flynn (American Museum of Natural History, New York), P. Makovicky (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago), M. Reguero (Museo de La Plata), and M. E. Pérez (Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio, Trelew), for facilitating access to comparative specimens in their care. We are grateful to A. Forasiepi and S. Hernández del Pino (Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales, Mendoza), and G. Rougier (University of Louisville) for their useful comments and suggestions. We are also grateful to the editor, Robert Asher, and to one of the anonymous reviewers for their meticulous and constructive reviews, which greatly improved the content of this paper. RDEM thanks the Department of Mammalogy, AMNH, for continuing support of his research activities.

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This work was partially supported by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina (CONICET).

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  1. CONICET, Sección Paleontología de Vertebrados, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia, Av. Ángel gallardo 470, 1405, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Alejandro G. Kramarz

  2. Department of Mammalogy/Vertebrate Zoology and Richard Gilder Graduate School, American Museum of Natural History, 200 Central Park West, 10024, New York, NY, USA

    Ross D. E. Macphee

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Kramarz, A.G., Macphee, R.D.E. Did some extinct South American native ungulates arise from an afrothere ancestor? A critical appraisal of Avilla and Mothé’s (2021) Sudamericungulata – Panameridiungulata hypothesis. J Mammal Evol 30, 67–77 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-022-09633-5

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