Phylogenetic systematics of basal perissodactyls

ABSTRACT The relationships among basal perissodactyls and among those taxa historically included in “Hyracotherium” are complicated. These taxa are morphologically similar, possessing few of the character states that diagnose the crown groups. To understand better these relationships, cladistic techniques were used to generate a matrix of 41 taxa and 125 characters including five non-perissodactyl outgroup taxa, representative basal tapiroids, brontotheres, chalicotheres, palaeotheres, and equids. A maximum parsimony analysis of this matrix using PAUP 3.0s generated two most parsimonious trees (length 627, CI 0.32). This analysis supports a monophyletic perissodactyl clade composed of the Tapiromorpha and the Hippomorpha. The tapiromorph clade consists of a number of basal “tapiroids”, a paraphyletic “isectolophid” group, the ceratomorphs (tapirs and rhinoceroses and extinct relatives), and the ancylopods (chalicotheres and relatives). The basal tapiromorphs are distributed holarctically, indicating diver...

[1]  M. Siddall.  Stratigraphic Consistency and the Shape of Things , 1996 .

[2]  K. Rose.  Skeleton of early Eocene Homogalax and the origin of Perissodactyla , 1996 .

[3]  N. Court.  A NEW SPECIES OF NUMIDOTHERIUM (MAMMALIA: PROBOSCIDEA) FROM THE EOCENE OF LIBYA AND THE EARLY PHYLOGENY OF THE PROBOSCIDEA , 1995 .

[4]  D. Hillis.  Approaches for Assessing Phylogenetic Accuracy , 1995 .

[5]  J. Huelsenbeck.  Comparing the stratigraphic record to estimates of phylogeny , 1994, Paleobiology.

[6]  J. Hooker.  The beginning of the equoid radiation , 1994 .

[7]  A. Larson.  The comparison of morphological and molecular data in phylogenetic systematics. , 1994, EXS.

[8]  M. Mahboubi,et al.  Reassessment of Lower Eocene Seggeurius amourensis: aspects of primitive dental morphology in the mammalian order Hyracoidea , 1993, Journal of Paleontology.

[9]  J. Bull,et al.  An Empirical Test of Bootstrapping as a Method for Assessing Confidence in Phylogenetic Analysis , 1993 .

[10]  J. Shoshani.  Hyracoidea-Tethytheria Affinity Based on Myological Data , 1993 .

[11]  M. Fischer,et al.  The Interrelation Between Proboscidea, Sirenia, Hyracoidea, and Mesaxonia: The Morphological Evidence , 1993 .

[12]  B. MacFadden.  The Horse Tree. (Book Reviews: Fossil Horses. Systematics, Paleobiology, and Evolution of the Family Equidae.) , 1994 .

[13]  J. Thewissen,et al.  The role of phenacodontids in the origin of the modern orders of ungulate mammals , 1992 .

[14]  J. Huelsenbeck,et al.  Signal, noise, and reliability in molecular phylogenetic analyses. , 1992, The Journal of heredity.

[15]  M. Novacek.  Fossils, Topologies, Missing Data, and the Higher Level Phylogeny of Eutherian Mammals , 1992 .

[16]  R. Mooi,et al.  Consistency Indices and Random Data , 1991 .

[17]  J. Huelsenbeck.  Tree-Length Distribution Skewness: An Indicator of Phylogenetic Information , 1991 .

[18]  E. Simons,et al.  The Oldest Egyptian Hyracoids (Mammalia: Pliohyracidae): New Species of Saghatherium and Thyrohyrax from the Fayum , 1991 .

[19]  M. Miyamoto,et al.  Discriminating between phylogenetic signal and random noise in DNA sequences , 1991 .

[20]  B. MacFadden,et al.  Morphological transformation and cladogenesis at the base of the adaptive radiation of Miocene hypsodont horses. American Museum novitates ; no. 3000 , 1991 .

[21]  Kevin de Queiroz,et al.  Phylogeny as a Central Principle in Taxonomy: Phylogenetic Definitions of Taxon Names , 1990 .

[22]  E. Simons,et al.  Taxeopody in the carpus and tarsus of Oligocene Pliohyracidae (Mammalia: Hyracoidea) and the phyletic position of hyraxes. , 1990, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[23]  J. Franzen.  Hallensia (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) aus Messel und dem Pariser Becken sowie Nachträge aus dem Geiseltal , 1990 .

[24]  D. Krause,et al.  The biogeographic origins of late Paleocene–early Eocene mammalian immigrants to the Western Interior of North America , 1990 .

[25]  J. Thewissen.  Evolution of Paleocene and Eocene Phenacodontidae (Mammalia, Condylarthra) , 1990 .

[26]  M. Donoghue,et al.  PATTERNS OF VARIATION IN LEVELS OF HOMOPLASY , 1989, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[27]  James W. Archie,et al.  Homoplasy Excess Ratios: New Indices for Measuring Levels of Homoplasy in Phylogenetic Systematics and a Critique of the Consistency Index , 1989 .

[28]  P. Gingerich.  New Earliest Wasatchian Mammalian Fauna from the Eocene of Northwestern Wyoming: Composition and Diversity in a Rarely Sampled High-Floodplain Assemblage , 1989 .

[29]  M. Donoghue,et al.  PHYLOGENETIC SYSTEMATICS AND THE SPECIES PROBLEM , 1988, Cladistics : the international journal of the Willi Hennig Society.

[30]  E. Simons,et al.  New Oligocene hyracoids from Egypt , 1988 .

[31]  K. Queiroz**,et al.  A phylogenetic analysis of lepidosauromorpha , 1988 .

[32]  D. Brooks,et al.  A Measure of the Information Content of Phylogenetic Trees, and its use as an Optimality Criterion , 1986 .

[33]  M. Novacek,et al.  HIGHER‐LEVEL RELATIONSHIPS OF THE RECENT EUTHERIAN ORDERS: MORPHOLOGICAL EVIDENCE , 1986, Cladistics : the international journal of the Willi Hennig Society.

[34]  J. Jaeger,et al.  El kohol saharan atlas algeria a new eocene mammal locality in northwestern africa stratigraphical phylogenetic and paleobiogeographical data , 1986 .

[35]  D. Domning,et al.  Two new Oligocene desmostylians and a discussion of tethytherian systematics , 1986 .

[36]  P. Ax.  STEM SPECIES AND THE STEM LINEAGE CONCEPT , 1985, Cladistics : the international journal of the Willi Hennig Society.

[37]  J. Hooker.  A primitive ceratomorph (Perissodactyla, Mammalia) from the early Tertiary of Europe , 1984 .

[38]  A. R. Templeton,et al.  PHYLOGENETIC INFERENCE FROM RESTRICTION ENDONUCLEASE CLEAVAGE SITE MAPS WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANS AND THE APES , 1983, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[39]  R. Cifelli.  The origin and affinities of the South American Condylarthra and early Tertiary Litopterna (Mammalia). American Museum novitates ; no. 2772 , 1983 .

[40]  D. Russell,et al.  Mammalian paleofaunas of the world , 1983 .

[41]  P. Gingerich.  Variation, sexual dimorphism, and social structure in the early Eocene horse Hyracotherium (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) , 1981, Paleobiology.

[42]  M. Mckenna,et al.  Affinities and palaeobiogeographic significanceof the Mongolian Paleogene genus Phenacolophus , 1977 .

[43]  B. MacFadden.  Cladistic Analysis of Primitive Equids, with Notes on Other Perissodactyls , 1976 .

[44]  Short Rv.  The evolution of the horse. , 1975 .

[45]  M. Mckenna.  Toward a Phylogenetic Classification of the Mammalia , 1975 .

[46]  R. West.  Deciduous dentition of the early Tertiary Phenacodontidae (Condylarthra, Mammalia). American Museum novitates ; no. 2461 , 1971 .

[47]  Leonard B. Radisky.  THE EARLY EVOLUTION OF THE PERISSODACTYLA , 1969, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[48]  L. Radinsky.  Hyrachyus, Chasmotherium, and the early evolution of helaletid tapiroids. American Museum novitates ; no. 2313 , 1967 .

[49]  L. Radinsky.  THE ADAPTIVE RADIATION OF THE PHENACODONTID CONDYLARTHS AND THE ORIGIN OF THE PERISSODACTYLA , 1966, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[50]  D. Russell,et al.  European Eocene Equidae (Perissodactyla) , 1965 .

[51]  L. Radinsky.  Paleomoropus, a new early Eocene chalicothere (Mammalia, Perissodactyla), and a revision of Eocene chalicotheres. American Museum novitates ; no. 2179 , 1964 .

[52]  M. Mckenna.  Fossil mammalia from the early wasatchian four mile fauna, Eocene of northwest Colorado , 1960 .

[53]  D. Kitts.  A revision of the genus Orohippus (Perrisodactyla, Equidae). American Museum novitates ; no. 1864 , 1957 .

[54]  G. Simpson.  NOTES ON BRITISH HYRACOTHERES. , 1952 .

[55]  G. Simpson.  Horses: The Story of the Horse Family in the Modern World and Through Sixty Million Years of History. , 1951 .

[56]  George Gaylord Sempson.  HOLARCTIC MAMMALIAN FAUNAS AND CONTINENTAL RELATIONSHIPS DURING THE CENOZOIC , 1947 .

[57]  George Gaylord Simpson,et al.  The Principles of Classification and a Classification of Mammals. , 1945 .

[58]  G. Jepsen,et al.  The Mammalian Fauna of the White River Oligocene: Part V. Perissodactyla , 1940 .

[59]  T. Barbour.  Birth of a Manatee , 1937 .

[60]  H. Osborn,et al.  Proboscidea : a monograph of the discovery, evolution, migration and extinction of the mastodonts and elephants of the world , 1936 .

[61]  C. F. Cooper.  The Genus Hyracotherium. A Revision and Description of New Specimens Found in England , 1932 .

[62]  G. Miller,et al.  Second Bibliography and Catalogue of the Fossil Vertebrata of North America , 1930 .

[63]  H. Osborn.  The titanotheres of ancient Wyoming, Dakota, and Nebraska , 1929 .

[64]  W. Matthew.  The Evolution of the Horse: A Record and Its Interpretation , 1926, The Quarterly Review of Biology.

[65]  H. Osborn.  Equidae of the oligocene, miocene, and pliocene of North America, iconographic type revision , 1918 .

[66]  J. L. Wortman.  Species of Hyracotherium and allied perissodactyls from the Wahsatch and Wind River beds of North America. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 8, article 6. , 1896 .

[67]  O. C. Marsh.  Notice of new Tertiary mammals, V , 1876, American Journal of Science.

[68]  E. Cope,et al.  Systematic Catalogue of Vertebrata of the Eocene of New Mexico: Collected in 1874 , 2018 .

[69]  T. Huxley.  An introduction to the classification of animals. By Thomas Henry Huxley ... , 1869 .

[70]  R. Owen.  Description of a small Lophiodont Mammal (Pliolophus vulpiceps, Owen), from the London Clay, near Harwich , 1858, Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London.

[71]  Richard Owen Esq..  I.—Description of some Molar Teeth from the Eocene Sand at Kyson in Suffolk, indicative of a new Species of Hyracotherium (Hyr. Cuniculus) , 1841 .

[72]  R. Owen.  XX.—Description of the Fossil Remains of a Mammal (Hyracotherium leporinum) and of a Bird (Lithornis vulturinus) from the London Clay. , 1841, Transactions of the Geological Society.

[73]  G. Cuvier.  Lecons d'anatomie comparée , 1835 .

[74]  H. D. D. Blainville.  Prodrome d’une nouvelle distribution systématique du règne animal , 1816 .