Re: A Little Brain Teaser

[cnedin@geology.adelaide.edu.au (Chris Nedin)]

Betty Cunningham <bcunning@nssi.com> wrote:

>Would the Tasmanian Wolf count?   It's from an insectivorous marsupial, I
>think.

Possibly. Thylacinids are decended from dasyurids which have several
carnivorous, as well as insectivorous, groups. The exact ancestral
relationships are unclear.

The best example would be _Thylacoleo carnifax_ (marsupial lion) and
related forms _Wakaleo vanderleuri_  and _Priscileo_ (Marsupalia:
Diprotodontia: Vombatomorphia: Thylacoleonidae) out and out carnivores
descended from (probably herbivorous) diprotodontids.

Also the (extinct) carnivorous kangaroo's _Ekaltadeta_ and _Propleopus_
(Marsupalia:Macropodoidea).

Chris

cnedin@geology.adelaide.edu.au                  nedin@ediacara.org
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Many say it was a mistake to come down from the trees, some say
the move out of the oceans was a bad idea. Me, I say the stiffening
of the notochord in the Cambrian was where it all went wrong,
it was all downhill from there.