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Mammals diversified earlier than thought
Topic Started: May 23 2018, 05:29 PM (412 Views)
Datura
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https://phys.org/news/2018-05-utah-fossil-reveals-global-exodus.html
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lamna
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The main thrust seems to be Pangaea was connected longer than previously though, but surely rafting can explain this too? Mammals can raft pretty large distances.
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Rebirth
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I think this indicates that Pangaea never split up. All continents are still connected. Plane flights and ferries are government scams. Oceans are just really large saltwater lakes. In truth you can drive all the way from New Zealand to Norway and never get wet. Shake up weeple!

In all seriousness, I wonder what other surprises Mesozoic mammals and paleobiogeography have for us.

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LλmbdaExplosion
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Funny enought ,Pangea broke in only 70 million years.But Afrotherians diverged from laurasiatheres somehow?Or from Xenarthans?
Edited by LλmbdaExplosion, May 24 2018, 01:48 AM.
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afrotheres form with boreutherians (includes,eaurchontoglire and laurasiatheres) the calde altantogenata
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Tartarus
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Actually Atlantogenata is Afrotheria+Xenarthra.
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lamna
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How the three placental groups fit together is not understood yet. I'd put my money on Afrotheres and Xenarthrans being close together, both being Gondwanan and South America and Africa having mammals exchange between them.

Kinda like dinosaurs in that way, I suppose. Could work any way.
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LλmbdaExplosion
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Since some xenarthans and afrotherians don't have external balls,that's a pretty clear indication that they are related.


Edit:their close relatives,the laurasitheres have many species without external scrotum either like pinnipeds and cetaceans so maybe that's not a critteria.
Edited by LλmbdaExplosion, May 26 2018, 08:44 AM.
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peashyjah
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Xenarthrans are the most basal (original) of all the placental mammals, meaning that their ancestors were the first to diverge from the evolutionary lineage leading to the Boreoeutheria but this is poorly understood. They have a slow metabolic (body-chemistry) rate, internal testes in the male and a relatively small brain when compared to those of more advanced placental mammals.
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LλmbdaExplosion
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peashyjah
May 26 2018, 02:20 PM
Xenarthrans are the most basal (original) of all the placental mammals, meaning that their ancestors were the first to diverge from the evolutionary lineage leading to the Boreoeutheria but this is poorly understood. They have a slow metabolic (body-chemistry) rate, internal testes in the male and a relatively small brain when compared to those of more advanced placental mammals.
It will be surprising.Because these guys are only found in the neotropics.Do rodents count as basal mammals?
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Archeoraptor
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not really they are well into euarchontglires, near lagomorphs and maybe tree shrews (seem to be realted to glires now) and primates and colugos on the other side
Astarte an alt eocene world,now on long hiatus but you never know
Fanauraa; The rebirth of Aotearoa future evo set in new zealand after a mass extinction
coming soon......a world that was seeded with earth´s weridest
and who knows what is coming next...........

" I have to know what the world will be looking throw a future beyond us
I have to know what could have been if fate acted in another way
I have to know what lies on the unknown universe
I have to know that the laws of thee universe can be broken
throw The Spec I gain strength to the inner peace
the is not good of evil only nature and change,the evolution of all livings beings"
"
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peashyjah
May 26 2018, 02:20 PM
Xenarthrans are the most basal (original) of all the placental mammals, meaning that their ancestors were the first to diverge from the evolutionary lineage leading to the Boreoeutheria but this is poorly understood. They have a slow metabolic (body-chemistry) rate, internal testes in the male and a relatively small brain when compared to those of more advanced placental mammals.
given the diets of pretty much every member of the clade, they don't *need* large brains, so why would they have them? (if they started small-brained, why would that change? and if they started with larger brains, why would they keep them?)
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LλmbdaExplosion
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Rodlox
May 27 2018, 03:38 AM
peashyjah
May 26 2018, 02:20 PM
Xenarthrans are the most basal (original) of all the placental mammals, meaning that their ancestors were the first to diverge from the evolutionary lineage leading to the Boreoeutheria but this is poorly understood. They have a slow metabolic (body-chemistry) rate, internal testes in the male and a relatively small brain when compared to those of more advanced placental mammals.
given the diets of pretty much every member of the clade, they don't *need* large brains, so why would they have them? (if they started small-brained, why would that change? and if they started with larger brains, why would they keep them?)
A few xenarthans have the same poor diet as pandas.Sloths ancestors were very smart,but You can't feed a normal brain with just leaves.
Edited by LλmbdaExplosion, May 27 2018, 08:03 AM.
When life give you lemons.............Don't make lemonade!Make life to take the lemons back!Get mad and than.........Yell,demand and burn down their homes.




Prepare for unforeseen consequences,Mr. Freeman!
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