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Re: mammalian lineages (was Re: Cretaceous taeniodont)
Tim - this is fascinating... where can one get more info on these
mammalian oddities? And what is it that makes them mammals - just the
teeth?
Peter Markmann
On Thursday, April 8, 2004, at 06:28 AM, Tim Williams wrote:
Eric Martichuski wrote:
I guess I'm just having trouble wrapping my brain around the idea of
mammals that aren't placental _or_ marsupial (or monotreme). What
else is could there be? ;-)
There are lots and lots and lots of extinct mammal species that do not
fit inside Monotremata or Marsupialia or Placentalia. Some can be
placed close to one of these clades, but many cannot (e.g., docodonts,
gondwanatheres, multituberculates, spalacotheres, triconodonts, etc
etc). To further complicate things, there are different different
definitions of 'Mammalia' (as opposed to Mammaliaformes or
Theriiformes, for example). Frankly, mammal phylogeny makes my head
spin.
BTW, I just found out that there's a Late Triassic mammal named
_Mojo_! (_Mojo usuratus_ to give the full name.)
Tim
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