Vincelestes

Vincelestes
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous
~130–112 Ma
Artist's restoration
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
(unranked): Cladotheria
Family: Vincelestidae
Genus: Vincelestes
Species: V. neuquenianus
Binomial name
Vincelestes neuquenianus

Vincelestes ("Vince's thief") is an extinct genus of actively mobile mammal, that lived in what would be South America during the Early Cretaceous from 130—112 mya, existing for approximately 18 million years.[1]

Description

Vincelestes neuquenianus is the only species known to date. Specimens were found in La Amarga Formation of southern Neuquén Province, Argentina. The remains of only nine individuals were recovered from this site.

The back teeth of Vincelestes were similar to those of therians in that they were capable of cutting and grinding. This enabled them to process food more efficiently.

Phylogeny

Although not the direct ancestor of therians, Vincelestes is important because it gives us an idea of what the ancestor of both placental and marsupial mammals might have looked like, and also gives an indication of when these mammals may have originated.

Some studies inversely recovered the genus as an australosphenida,[2][3] although current thought places Vincelestes as sister to marsupials and placental mammals.[4][5]

References

  1. ↑ PaleoBiology Database: Vincelestes, basic info
  2. ↑ Nicholas Chimento, Frederico Agnolin, Agustin Martinelli, Mesozoic Mammals from South America: Implications for understanding early mammalian faunas from Gondwana, May 2016
  3. ↑ José Bonaparte, On the phylogenetic relationships of Vincelestes neuquenianus, Published online: 17 Sep 2008
  4. ↑ Adam K. Huttenlocker; David M. Grossnickle; James I. Kirkland; Julia A. Schultz; Zhe-Xi Luo (2018). "Late-surviving stem mammal links the lowermost Cretaceous of North America and Gondwana". Nature. in press. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0126-y.
  5. ↑ Shundong Bi; Xiaoting Zheng; Xiaoli Wang; Natalie E. Cignetti; Shiling Yang; John R. Wible (2018). "An Early Cretaceous eutherian and the placental–marsupial dichotomy". Nature. in press. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0210-3.

Further reading

  • Turner A. (2004). National Geographic Prehistoric Mammals. Firecrest Books Ltd., p 46
  • Kielan-Jaworowska Z., Cifelli R. & Luo Z. (2004). Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs: Origins, Evolution, and Structure. Columbia University Press, p 399.


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