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Open AccessHop, walk or bound? Limb proportions in kangaroos and the probable locomotion of the extinct genus Protemnodon
Kangaroos (Macropodoidea) display a diversity of locomotor modes, from bounding quadrupedally to hop** bipedally; but hop** has a body mass limit, which was exceeded by a number of extinct taxa. In the Ple...
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Open AccessNew insights on the ecology and behavior of Machairodus aphanistus (Carnivora, Felidae, Machairodontinae) through the paleopathological study of the fossil sample from the Late Miocene (Vallesian, MN 10) of Cerro de los Batallones (Torrejón de Velasco, Madrid, Spain)
The Late Miocene natural traps of Cerro de los Batallones (Madrid, Spain) have yielded thousands of fossils of vertebrates, mostly carnivoran mammals such as hyaenids, amphicyonids, ailurids, mustelids, ursids...
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Open AccessSkull of a new periptychid mammal from the lower Paleocene Denver Formation of Colorado (Corral Bluffs, El Paso County)
The Periptychidae, an extinct group of archaic ungulates (‘condylarths’), were the most speciose eutherian mammals in the earliest Paleocene of North America, epitomizing mammalian ascendency after the Cretace...
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Open AccessComparison of dental topography of marmosets and tamarins (Callitrichidae) to other platyrrhine primates using a novel freeware pipeline
Dental topographic metrics (DTMs), which quantify different aspects of the shape of teeth, are powerful tools for studying dietary adaptation and evolution in mammals. Current DTM protocols usually rely on pro...
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Open AccessProportional variation and scaling in the hindlimbs of hop** mammals, including convergent evolution in argyrolagids and jerboas
Bipedal hop** is a mode of locomotion seen today in four rodent lineages and one clade of marsupials. The Argyrolagidae, marsupials from the Oligocene to Pliocene of South America, have also been considered ...
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Open AccessCraniometric variation and taxonomic boundaries in the Madras Treeshrew (Scandentia, Tupaiidae: Anathana ellioti [Waterhouse, 1850]) from India
The Madras Treeshrew, Anathana ellioti (Waterhouse, 1850), is a small, poorly studied mammal from South Asia. It is the only treeshrew found across the southern half of the Indian subcontinent and is the westernm...
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Open AccessBlood flow rate to the femur of extinct kangaroos implies a higher locomotor intensity compared to living hop** macropods
The stocky skeletons and post-cranial anatomy of many extinct kangaroos indicate that they might have engaged in varied locomotor behaviors, rather than bipedal hop**, as their primary mode of locomotion. Th...
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Open AccessDeinotherium levius and Tetralophodon longirostris (Proboscidea, Mammalia) from the Late Miocene hominid locality Hammerschmiede (Bavaria, Germany), and their biostratigraphic significance for the terrestrial faunas of the European Miocene
During the Miocene, proboscideans reached their greatest diversification, and due to their marked evolutionary changes in dental size and morphology, they comprise an important biostratigraphic/biochronologica...
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Open AccessRib remodelling changes with body size in fossil hippopotamuses from Cyprus and Greece
Large species that are isolated for thousands of years on islands often evolve extreme degrees of dwarfism. Very little is known about physiological processes that accompany such extreme transitions in extinct...
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Open AccessCorrection to: Deciduous dentition, tooth replacement, and mandibular growth in the late jurassic docodontan Haldanodon exspectatus (Mammaliaformes)
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Open AccessDeciduous dentition, tooth replacement, and mandibular growth in the Late Jurassic docodontan Haldanodon exspectatus (Mammaliaformes)
The Late Jurassic docodontan Haldanodon exspectatus from the Guimarota coal mine in Portugal provides important information on the evolution of the dental replacement pattern in mammaliaforms. Haldanodon shows di...
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Open AccessNew evidence for the unique coexistence of two subfamilies of clawed perissodactyls (Mammalia, Chalicotheriidae) in the Upper Miocene of Romania and the Eastern Mediterranean
Chalicotheres are a peculiar group of large herbivorous mammals, closely related to extant tapirs, rhinoceroses, and horses, but with large claws instead of hooves. The family Chalicotheriidae consists of two ...
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Open AccessTemporal lobe evolution in extant and extinct Cercopithecoidea
Changes to the environmental landscapes from the Eocene to Holocene have influenced the evolution of Cercopithecoidea from arboreal origins in wet, forested regions in the Early Oligocene Fayum to semi-terrest...
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Open AccessAnatomy and phylogeny of a new small macraucheniid (Mammalia: Litopterna) from the Bahía Inglesa Formation (late Miocene), Atacama Region, Northern Chile
We describe a new macraucheniine macraucheniid, Micrauchenia saladensis gen. et sp. nov., from the late Miocene (Huayquerian SALMA). This is the first litoptern from Bahía Inglesa Formation, Chile. The specimen i...
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Open AccessAn enigmatic giraffid from the latest Miocene of Italy: Taxonomy, affinity, and paleobiogeographic implications
The origin and evolution of endemic species characterizing the Oreopithecus-faunal assemblages of the Tusco-Sardinian archipelago remain a matter of debate. An emblematic case is the enigmatic giraffid Umbrotheri...
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Open AccessEcomorphology of toothed whales (Cetacea, Odontoceti) as revealed by 3D skull geometry
Extant odontocetes (toothed whales) exhibit differences in body size and brain mass, biosonar mode, feeding strategies, and diving and habitat adaptations. Strong selective pressures associated with these fact...
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Open AccessInvestigating the land-to-sea transition in carnivorans from the evolution of sacrum morphology in pinnipeds
The form and function of the sacrum are of great relevance to understand the evolution of locomotion in tetrapods because it is a key piece of the vertebrate skeleton. The sacrum connects the caudal and presac...
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Open AccessCorrection to: The vocal apparatus: An understudied tool to reconstruct the evolutionary history of echolocation in bats?
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Open AccessThe Quaternary lions of Ukraine and a trend of decreasing size in Panthera spelaea
The fossil record of the cave lion, Panthera spelaea, suggests a gradual decrease in body size, the process peaking just before the extinction of the species at the end of the Late Pleistocene. Such an evolutiona...
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Open AccessThe vocal apparatus: An understudied tool to reconstruct the evolutionary history of echolocation in bats?
Laryngeal echolocation in bats could have evolved following two scenarios: a single origin from a common ancestor or an independent acquisition inside the two clades Yinpterochiroptera and Yangochiroptera. Lat...
