Cranial anatomy of the earliest marsupials and the origin of opossums

Abstract

Background: The early evolution of living marsupials is poorly understood in part because the early offshoots of this group are known almost exclusively from jaws and teeth. Filling this gap is essential for a better understanding of the phylogenetic relationships among living marsupials, the biogeographic pathways that led to their current distribution as well as the successive evolutionary steps that led to their current diversity, habits and various specializations that distinguish them from placental mammals.

Methodology/principal findings: Here we report the first skull of a 55 million year old peradectid marsupial from the early Eocene of North America and exceptionally preserved skeletons of an Oligocene herpetotheriid, both representing critical groups to understand early marsupial evolution. A comprehensive phylogenetic cladistic analysis of Marsupialia including the new findings and close relatives of marsupials show that peradectids are the sister group of living opossums and herpetotheriids are the sister group of all living marsupials.

Conclusions/significance: The results imply that North America played an important role in early Cenozoic marsupial evolutionary history and may have even been the center of origin of living marsupials and opossums. New data from the herpetotheriid postcranium support the view that the ancestral morphotype of Marsupialia was more terrestrial than opossums are. The resolution of the phylogenetic position of peradectids reveals an older calibration point for molecular estimates of divergence times among living marsupials than those currently used.

Figure 1. Skull of Mimoperadectes houdei USNM 482355.

Stereo photographs of (A) anterior fragment in ventral view and (B) M1-3 in occlusal view.

Figure 2. Skull of Mimoperadectes houdei USNM 482355.

(A) Posterior fragment in dorsal view. (B) Composite of two left-view photographs of anterior and posterior fragments separated by a thick line. (C) Schematic reconstruction joining both fragments in dorsal view. Abbreviations: C, canine; P, premolar; M, molar; St, stylar cusp.

Figure 3. Computed tomography (CT) reconstruction and keys.

(A) Right bony labyrinth in lateral view and (B–C) right petrosal in ventral and dorsal views respectively, with reconstruction of arteries, veins, and nerves.

Figure 4. Photographs and keys of Herpetotherium cf. fugax.

(A) SMF 2000/168. (B) SMF 2000/169. Abbreviations: l, left; r, right; SMF, Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt.

Figure 5. Phylogenetic relationships and ages.

(A) Most parsimonious cladogram resulting from analysis of morphological data matrix, of length = 1013, CI = 0.43, RI = 0.65, RC = 0.28 (see SI for data matrix and branch support values). (B) Summary diagram of ‘A’ showing minimum ages of cladogenetic events (after Luo , and evidence presented here). Empty balloons represent fossil species. Abbreviations: Paleoc, Paleocene; Ea, Early; La, Late.

Figure 6. Restorations of (A) Herpetotherium and (B) Mimoperadectes, by Jorge González (La Plata, Argentina).