Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Biogeographical Considerations of the Marsupial-Placental Dichotomy

Biogeographical Considerations of the Marsupial-Placental Dichotomy Initially I intended this paper to survey the recent information pertaining to the marsupial-placental dichotomy in mammalian evolution from the following points of view (a) the fossil record; (b) the paleogeography and ecological setting of the world at the presumed time of the phylogenetic separation; and (c) the comparisons gleaned from the "soft" biology (i.e. anatomy, physiology, genetics) of the living representatives of the two groups in hopes of improving earlier reconstructions of the common ancestral therian stock. However, it is impossible to do all these things thoroughly enough, within the space limitations of Annual Reviews, to avoid misim­ pressions resulting from gross oversimplification. It is also clear that, despite the enormous burst of geological, geophysical, and paleoecological information about the world of the Cretaceous, there exists in the literature rampant contradictions and misinterpretations on the subject, with many disciplines working to the near exclu­ sion of others. I believe the time is now right for an overall review of the early Cretaceous continental geography and its likely result on the evolution of land vertebrates, especially therian mammals. Only with a thorough grounding of this type will a later discussion of the biological aspects of the marsupial-placental dichotomy http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics Annual Reviews

Biogeographical Considerations of the Marsupial-Placental Dichotomy

Download PDF
21 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/annual-reviews/biogeographical-considerations-of-the-marsupial-placental-dichotomy-Q680gzbOUs

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Annual Reviews
Copyright
Copyright 1974 Annual Reviews. All rights reserved
Subject
Review Articles
ISSN
0066-4162
DOI
10.1146/annurev.es.05.110174.001403
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Initially I intended this paper to survey the recent information pertaining to the marsupial-placental dichotomy in mammalian evolution from the following points of view (a) the fossil record; (b) the paleogeography and ecological setting of the world at the presumed time of the phylogenetic separation; and (c) the comparisons gleaned from the "soft" biology (i.e. anatomy, physiology, genetics) of the living representatives of the two groups in hopes of improving earlier reconstructions of the common ancestral therian stock. However, it is impossible to do all these things thoroughly enough, within the space limitations of Annual Reviews, to avoid misim­ pressions resulting from gross oversimplification. It is also clear that, despite the enormous burst of geological, geophysical, and paleoecological information about the world of the Cretaceous, there exists in the literature rampant contradictions and misinterpretations on the subject, with many disciplines working to the near exclu­ sion of others. I believe the time is now right for an overall review of the early Cretaceous continental geography and its likely result on the evolution of land vertebrates, especially therian mammals. Only with a thorough grounding of this type will a later discussion of the biological aspects of the marsupial-placental dichotomy

Journal

Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics – Annual Reviews

Published: Nov 1, 1974

There are no references for this article.