Herpetotheriidae

Herpetotheriidae

Herpetotheriidae

Extinct family of mammals

Herpetotheriidae is an extinct family of metatherians, closely related to marsupials.[1] Species of this family are generally reconstructed as terrestrial, and are considered morphologically similar to modern opossums.[2] Fossils of herpetotheriids come from North America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and perhaps South America. The oldest representative is Maastrichtidelphys from the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of the Netherlands[3] and the youngest member is Amphiperatherium from the Middle Miocene of Europe.[4] The group has been suggested to be paraphyletic, with an analysis of petrosal anatomy finding that North American Herpetotherium was more closely related to marsupials than the European Peratherium and Amphiperatherium.[5]

Quick Facts Scientific classification, Genera ...

The family includes the following genera:[6]

The following genera have been placed in the family, but their placement is disputed or obsolete:

  • Garatherium (Early Eocene of Algeria) – possibly an adapisoriculid eutherian[13]
  • Indodelphis (Early Eocene of India) – originally referred to Peradectidae[14]
  • Jaegeria (Early Eocene of India) – a bat[15]
  • Rumiodon (Paleogene of Peru) – placement uncertain[16]


Cladogram after,[5] showing a paraphyletic Herpetotheriidae.

Metatheria

References

  1. [1]
    Asher et al. 2007, p. 318.
  2. [2]
    Asher et al. 2007, p. 322.
  3. [3]
    Martin et al. 2005, p. 497; Asher et al. 2007, p. 318.
  4. [4]
    Mörs, von der Hocht & Wutzler 2000, p. 159.
  5. [5]
    Ladevèze, Sandrine; Selva, Charlène; de Muizon, Christian (2020-09-01). "What are "opossum-like" fossils? The phylogeny of herpetotheriid and peradectid metatherians, based on new features from the petrosal anatomy". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 18 (17): 1463–1479. doi:10.1080/14772019.2020.1772387. ISSN 1477-2019. S2CID 221060039.
  6. [6]
    McKenna & Bell 1997, pp. 69–70.
  7. [7]
    Crochet et al. 2007, pp. 634–635.
  8. [8]
    Thomas E. Williamson; Donald L. Lofgren (2014). "Late Paleocene (Tiffanian) metatherians from the Goler Formation, California". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 34 (2): 477–482. doi:10.1080/02724634.2013.804413.
  9. [9]
    Martin et al. 2005.
  10. [10]
    Case, Goin & Woodburne 2005, pp. 473–482.
  11. [11]
    Hooker et al. 2008.
  12. [12]
    Crespo, Vicente D.; Goin, Francisco J.; Pickford, Martin (2022-03-06). "The last African metatherian". Fossil Record. 25 (1): 173–186. doi:10.3897/fr.25.80706. hdl:10362/151025. ISSN 2193-0074. S2CID 249349445.
  13. [13]
    Hooker et al. 2008, p. 635.
  14. [14]
    Crochet et al. 2007, p. 635.
  15. [15]
    Smith et al. 2007, p. 1008.
  16. [16]
    Goin & Candela 2004, p. 18.

Literature cited


Stub icon

This article about a Cretaceous mammal is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Herpetotheriidae, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.