Sparassodonta

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Sparassodonta
Temporal range: Paleocene-Pliocene
File:Tylacosmilus DB.jpg
Thylacosmilus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Infraclass:
Metatheria
Order:
†Sparassodonta

Ameghino, 1894
Families

†Hathliacynidae
†Borhyaenidae
†Proborhyaenidae
†Thylacosmilidae

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Sparassodonta[1] is an extinct order of carnivorous metatherian mammals native to South America. They were once considered to be true marsupials, but are now thought to be a sister taxon to them.[2][unreliable source?][3] A number of these mammalian predators closely resemble placental predators that evolved separately on other continents, and are cited frequently as examples of convergent evolution. They were first described by Florentino Ameghino, from fossils found in the Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia. Sparassodonts were present throughout South America's long period of "splendid isolation" during the Cenozoic; during this time they shared the niches for large warm-blooded predators with the flightless terror birds. Previously, it was thought that these mammals died out in the face of competition from "more competitive" placental carnivorans during the Pliocene Great American Interchange, but more recent research has showed that sparassodonts died out long before eutherian carnivores arrived in South America (aside from procyonids).[4][5]

Features

Although members of the order Sparassodonta showed many similarities with placental carnivores, they were not closely related and are a very good example of convergent evolution. For example, sparassodonts' molars were very similar to the sharp teeth of placental carnivores. The canines were also lengthened, and in some cases resemble those of saber-toothed cats. Sparassodonts spanned a wide range of body sizes, from 2.2 pound (1 kg) weasel or civet-like forms to Thylacosmilus, which was the size of a leopard.[5][6] Along with the Australian thylacoleonids, sparassodonts include some of the largest metatherian carnivores.[5]

Sparassodonta is characterized by dental synapomorphies that distinguish the group from other closely related mammals. Unequivocal traits uniting the earliest Sparassodonts include:[7]

  • a ridge on the upper molar (preparacrista) oriented anterobuccally (towards the cheek) with respect to the long axis of the tooth.
  • ridges on lower molars (postprotocristid-metacristid) parallel or oblique with respect to lower jaw axis.
  • talonid (crushing end) of lower molar narrow in relation to trigonid (shearing end).

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Further information: Molar (tooth)

The dental formula of most sparassodonts is 4.1.3.43.1.3.4, with the exception of borhyaenids, which have lost an upper incisor, proborhyaenids (except for Callistoe), which have lost a lower incisor, and thylacosmilids, which have lost one premolar, two lower incisors, and at least two upper incisors.[7][8] Some specimens of Borhyaena and Arctodictis are also missing the last upper molar, showing that the presence of this tooth was variable in these species.[9] Sparassodonts had a typical metatherian mode of dental replacement, replacing only the upper and lower third premolar throughout their lifetime.[10] In thylacosmilids, this tooth was never replaced.[11]

Evolutionary history

The early history of the Sparassodonta is poorly known, as most Paleocene and Eocene members of this group are only known from isolated teeth and fragmentary jaws. However, one species, the middle Eocene Callistoe vincei, is known from a nearly complete, articulated skeleton.[12] As Callistoe belongs to one of the most specialized groups of sparassodonts, this indicates that the other major groups (e.g. borhyaenids, hathliacynids, etc.) must have also arisen by this time. Originally, the early Paleocene metatherian Mayulestes was considered to be the earliest known member of the Sparassodonta, but phylogenetic analyses suggest that this species represents an independent radiation of carnivorous metatherians more closely related to Pucadelphys.[7] As of this writing[specify], the earliest known true sparassodonts are either Allqokirus australis, a species from the same site as Mayulestes which may also turn out to not be a sparassodont, and an isolated astragalus from the earliest Paleocene site of Punta Peligro, Argentina.[13] Marshall and colleagues in 1990[14] considered the Cretaceous stagodontids to also be a member of the Sparassodonta, but this was criticized by later authors.

The skeleton of Lycopsis longirostrus, from the Miocene.

Sparassodonts can be divided into six major groups; basal sparassodonts (?earliest Paleocene-late Miocene), species that cannot be easily assigned to any of the other sparassodont groups and whose teeth often exhibit adaptations for omnivory; hathliacynids (late Oligocene-early Pliocene/late Pliocene), which range from a marten to a thylacine in size, and have long, fox-like snouts and teeth strongly adapted for carnivory; basal borhyaenoids (middle Eocene-late Miocene), borhyaenoids that cannot be easily classified into the families Borhyaenidae, Thylacosmilidae, or Proborhyaenidae and vary in size and shape; borhyaenids (early-late Miocene), the sparassodont group most specialized for running, but not as much as living carnivorans or even thylacines; proborhyaenids (middle Eocene-late Oligocene), robust, wolverine-like forms with ever-growing upper and lower canines; and thylacosmilids (early Miocene-late Pliocene), another terrestrially specialized group with ever-growing saber-like upper canines.[7] With the exception of some basal sparassodonts, all members of this group were hypercarnivorous.[5] Based on studies of the postcranial skeleton, it appears as though most sparassodonts were scansorial (adapted for climbing), although terrestrial adaptations evolved in "Lycopsis" longirostrus, borhyaenids, proborhyaenids, and thylacosmilids.[15][16][17]

After the middle Miocene, sparassodonts began to slowly decline in diversity. Basal borhyaenoids are last known from the early late Miocene (Pseudolycopsis cabrerai and "Lycopsis" viverensis), and after this time were at least partially replaced by large-bodied basal sparassodonts such as Stylocynus. It has been suggested that this shift in dominance was due to the more omnivorous habits of basal sparassodonts, which may have been better able to exploit the more seasonal climates of South America during the late Neogene.[18] Borhyaenids are last known from the latest Miocene, though only fragmentary remains of this group are known from this period.[4] Later remains assigned to this group have since been reidentified as thylacosmilids or procyonids. By the Pliocene, only two families of sparassodonts remained in South America, the Hathliacynidae and the Thylacosmilidae. Pliocene hathliacynid remains are rare, and it is possible that these animals may have competed with the large carnivorous didelphids such as Lutreolina that appeared around this time.[19] Hathliacynids are last definitively known from the early Pliocene, though it has been suggested that the genus Borhyaenidium may have survived into the late Pliocene.[5] The thylacosmilids, on the other hand, were more successful and abundant, being some of the only large mammalian carnivores in South America during the Pliocene, and only died out at the end of the epoch. It is still not certain why the Sparassodonta declined in diversity and became extinct during the late Cenozoic, but it appears as though competition from eutherian carnivorans was not a factor, as the placental analogues of sparassodonts (dogs, weasels, and saber-toothed cats) did not enter South America until the middle Pleistocene, several million years after their sparassodont counterparts became extinct.[7][4][20] The overall decline in sparassodont diversity from the late Miocene to the end of the Pliocene may be linked to the cooling climates following the middle Miocene climatic optimum and the onset of the Pleistocene ice ages.[21]

Classification

Cladogram after Suárez et al., 2015. Please note that not all studies agree on the sister group relationship between Thylacosmilidae and Borhyaenidae recovered here, with other studies finding thylacosmilids to be more closely related to proborhyaenids.[12] The relationships among hathliacynids are also relatively unstable.[22]

Sparassodonta

Patene



Honadelphys



Stylocynus


Hathliacynidae

Acyon



Cladosictis



Sipalocyon



Notogale


Sallacyon





Borhyaenoidea
Lycopsis

Lycopsis longirostrus



Lycopsis viverensis



Lycopsis torresi


Lycopsis padillai






Prothylacynus



Pharsophorus


Borhyaenidae

Borhyaena



Australohyaena



Arctodictis sinclairi


Arctodictis munizi






Callistoe



Paraborhyaena

Thylacosmilidae

Patagosmilus


Thylacosmilus












Taxonomy

The taxonomic classification below follows the latest review of the group, that of Forasiepi, 2009, with additions from more recent studies.[7] Although Mayulestes was originally described as a sparassodont, later phylogenetic analyses have shown that it most likely does not belong to this group.[7][23] Similarly, while basal borhyaenoids such as Lycopsis and Prothylacynus were once thought to belong to a distinct family (Prothylacynidae), phylogenetic analyses have found that these animals do not represent a monophyletic group.[7][12][24][25] The exact age of most Eocene species of sparassodonts is uncertain, given the lack of precise stratigraphic information associated with most specimens and the recent division of the Casamayoran SALMA into the Vacan and Barrancan SALMAs.

  • Order Sparassodonta

References

  1. ↑ From Greek σπαράσσειν (sparassein), to tear, rend; and ὀδούς, gen. ὀδόντος (odous, odontos), tooth.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Guillermo W. Rougier, John R. Wible and Michael J. Novacek. First Implications of Deltatheridium specimens for early marsupial history, Nature 396, 459-463(3 December 1998)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Further reading

  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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