Mid-Cenozoic climate change, extinction, and faunal turnover in Madagascar, and their bearing on the evolution of lemurs.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Was there a mid-Cenozoic vertebrate extinction and recovery event in Madagascar and, if so, what are its implications for the evolution of lemurs? The near lack of an early and mid-Cenozoic fossil record on Madagascar has inhibited direct testing of any such hypotheses. We compare the terrestrial vertebrate fauna of Madagascar in the Holocene to that of early Cenozoic continental Africa to shed light on the probability of a major mid-Cenozoic lemur extinction event, followed by an "adaptive radiation" or recovery. We also use multiple analytic approaches to test competing models of lemur diversification and the null hypothesis that no unusual mid-Cenozoic extinction of lemurs occurred.

Results

Comparisons of the terrestrial vertebrate faunas of the early Cenozoic

SUBMITTER: Godfrey LR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7414565 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature