Total evidence phylogeny and evolutionary timescale for Australian faunivorous marsupials (Dasyuromorphia).

ABSTRACT:

Background

The order Dasyuromorphia is a diverse radiation of faunivorous marsupials, comprising >80 modern species in Australia and New Guinea. It includes dasyurids, the numbat (the myrmecobiid Myrmecobius fasciatus) and the recently extinct thylacine (the thylacinid Thylacinus cyncocephalus). There is also a diverse fossil record of dasyuromorphians and "dasyuromorphian-like" taxa known from Australia. We present the first total evidence phylogenetic analyses of the order, based on combined morphological and molecular data (including a novel set of 115 postcranial characters), to resolve relationships and calculate divergence dates. We use this information to analyse the diversification dynamics of modern dasyuromorphians.

Results

Our morphology-only analyses are poorly r

SUBMITTER: Kealy S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5715987 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature