First Mesozoic mammal from Australia-an early Cretaceous monotreme
Here we describe Australia's first known Mesozoic mammal and the first known early Cretaceous mammal from Gondwanaland. Steropodon galmani n. gen. and sp., discovered in early Cretaceous sediments at Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia, appears to represent an ornithorhynchid-like monot...
Gespeichert in:
Veröffentlicht in: | Nature (London) 1985-11, Vol.318 (6044), p.363-366 |
---|---|
Hauptverfasser: | , , , |
Format: | Artikel |
Sprache: | eng |
Schlagworte: | |
Online-Zugang: | Volltext |
Tags: |
Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
|
Zusammenfassung: | Here we describe Australia's first known Mesozoic mammal and the first known early Cretaceous mammal from Gondwanaland.
Steropodon galmani
n. gen. and sp., discovered in early Cretaceous sediments at Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia, appears to represent an ornithorhynchid-like monotreme. This discovery represents the first record of a fossil mammal from Australia that is older than 22.4±0.05 Myr
1,2
and the specimen is, by more than 85Myr, the oldest known monotreme. As the oldest monotreme, it will necessitate a radical revision of present understanding about dental homology in the middle Miocene
Obdurodon insignis
, the only fossil monotreme previously known to have had teeth
3
. The structure of
S. galmani
supports one current view
4
that monotremes, one of three groups of living mammals (the other two being marsupials and placentals), are phylogenetically close to the other groups of living mammals. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 0028-0836 1476-4687 |
DOI: | 10.1038/318363a0 |