"Neomammals" (arising out of Neoaves discussion)

["A.P. Hazen" <a.hazen@philosophy.unimelb.edu.au>]

David Marjanovic wrote:
	"We'll probably have a complete *Toxodon* mitochondrial
	genome before we'll have the first serious-sized
	morphological placental analysis in history."
Is this just general speculation, or is there a project afoot to 
sequence Toxodon material (some of which is comparable in date to the 
Neandertal stuff Svante Paabo gets  in the news for doing).
--
I certainly  hope such a project is carried out.  Since the split 
between the Placental superorders seems to have  taken place before 
there was much morphological differentiation, it seems to be 
difficult to place primitive types: witness the suggestion that 
Phenacodont "condylarths" are Afrotheres despite their historic 
association with Perissodactyls, which are  about as core 
Laurasiathere as you can get!  ...  Given the resemblance of some 
early South American "ungulates" to North American "condylarths," I 
would ***bet*** that the South American endemic "ungulate" radiation 
was Laurasiatherian if I was forced to, but it would be REALLY nice 
to get some molecular  data.

While we are at it-- since "Lipotyphla" seems to be polyphyletic, 
some Afrotheres and some Laurasiatheres-- has anyone done molecular 
studies on Solenodon?  Or on the remains of Nesophontids?

(Sorry-- I'm a mammal enthusiast.  Dinosaur connection is thast the 
question arose out of discussion of a paper on the phylogeny of 
Neoaves.)

---

Allen Hazen
Philosophy Department
Universityof Melbourne