ORCID Profile
0000-0002-4940-3391
Current Organisation
UNSW Australia
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Geology | Palaeontology (incl. Palynology) | Phylogeny and Comparative Analysis | Conservation And Biodiversity | Palaeontology | Geochronology And Isotope Geochemistry | Stratigraphy (incl. Biostratigraphy and Sequence Stratigraphy) | Environmental Science and Management | Geochemistry | Biomaterials | Zoology | Composite Materials | Archaeological Science | Speciation and Extinction | Climatology (Incl. Palaeoclimatology) | Animal Structure and Function | Animal Anatomy And Histology | Natural Resource Management | Biogeography | Palynology
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Climate change | Environmental education and awareness | Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change | Documentation of Undescribed Flora and Fauna | Effects of Climate Change and Variability on Australia (excl. Social Impacts) | Expanding Knowledge in the Earth Sciences | Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences | Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity at Regional or Larger Scales | Understanding other countries | Effects of Climate Change and Variability on New Zealand (excl. Social Impacts) | Environmental Management Systems | Biological sciences | Earth sciences | Other | Climate variability | Dental health |
Related Links
Publications
NecromantisWeithofer, 1887, large carnivorous Middle and Late Eocene bats from the French Quercy Phosphorites: new data and unresolved relationships
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date: 29-03-2012
A new archaic bat (Chiroptera: Archaeonycteridae) from an Early Eocene forest in the Paris Basin
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 16-03-2017
A review of the Pliocene bandicoots of Australia, and descriptions of new genus and species
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-09-2017
Developing a radiometrically-dated chronologic sequence for Neogene biotic change in Australia, from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area of Queensland
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2016
Evidence for a giant parrot from the Early Miocene of New Zealand
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 08-2019
Abstract: Insular avifaunas have repeatedly spawned evolutionary novelties in the form of unusually large, often flightless species. We report fossils from the Early Miocene St Bathans Fauna of New Zealand that attests to the former existence of a giant psittaciform, which is described as a new genus and species. The fossils are two incomplete tibiotarsi from a bird with an estimated mass of 7 kg, double that of the heaviest known parrot, the kakapo Strigops habroptila . These psittaciform fossils show that parrots join the growing group of avian taxa prone to giantism in insular species, currently restricted to palaeognaths, anatids, sylviornithids, columbids, aptornithids, ciconiids, tytonids, falconids and accipitrids.
Ostracods (crustacea) with soft part preservation from miocene cave deposits of the riversleighworld heritage area, NWQueensland, Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 25-03-2013
Dietary and body-mass reconstruction of the Miocene neotropical bat Notonycteris magdalenensis (Phyllostomidae) from La Venta, Colombia
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 12-07-2022
DOI: 10.1017/PAB.2021.21
Abstract: With 14 species recorded, the Miocene La Venta bat fauna is the most erse bat paleocommunity in South America. It includes the oldest plant-visiting bat in the New World and some of the earliest representatives of the extant families Phyllostomidae, Thyropteridae, and Noctilionidae. La Venta's Notonycteris magdalenensis is an extinct member of the subfamily Phyllostominae, a group of modern Neotropical animalivorous bats, and is commonly included in studies of the evolution of Neotropical bats, but aspects of its biology remain unclear. In this study, we used multivariate dental topography analysis (DTA) to reconstruct the diet of N. magdalenensis by quantitatively comparing measures of molar complexity with those of 25 modern noctilionoid species representing all major dietary habits in bats. We found clear differences in molar complexity between dietary guilds, indicating that DTA is potentially an informative tool to study bat ecomorphology. Our results suggest N. magdalenensis was probably an omnivore or insectivore, rather than a carnivore like its modern relatives Chrotopterus auritus and V yrum spectrum . Also, we reconstructed the body mass of N. magdalenensis to be ~95 g, larger than most insectivorous bats, but smaller than the largest carnivorous bat ( V. spectrum ). Our results confirm that N. magdalenensis was not a specialized carnivore. It remains to be demonstrated that the specialized carnivory ecological niche was occupied by the same lineage of phyllostomines from at least the middle Miocene. Combining our diet and body-mass reconstructions, we suggest that N. magdalenensis exhibits morphological pre-adaptations crucial for the evolution of specialized carnivory.
Extinction of South American sparassodontans (Metatheria): environmental fluctuations or complex ecological processes?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-11-2016
DOI: 10.1111/PALA.12272
Lekaneleo, a new genus of marsupial lion (Marsupialia, Thylacoleonidae) from the Oligocene–Miocene of Australia, and the craniodental morphology ofL. roskellyae, comb. nov.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-09-2019
Flightless rails (Aves; Rallidae) from the early Miocene St Bathans Fauna, Otago, New Zealand.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 27-02-2018
The genus Galadi: Three new bandicoots (Marsupialia, Peramelemorphia) from Riversleighs Miocene deposits, northwestern Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2013
A simple radioactive binding assay for the detection of rheumatoid factor in serum
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-1980
DOI: 10.1016/0022-1759(80)90048-4
Abstract: A simple radioactive binding assay for the detection of rheumatoid factor (RF-RBA) is described. Test sera are complement inactivated by incubation in 0.13 M ethylene diaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) at 37 degrees C and then incubated with 125I-labelled heat-aggregated IgG. Rheumatoid factor bound, labelled IgG is separated from free by precipitation with 2.5% (w/v) polyethylene glycol 6000. Sera from 78 patients and 24 controls were tested in the RF-RBA assay and the results compared with those obtained by the rheumatoid latex test and the rheumaton test. 37 sera were positive and 59 sera were negative for rheumatoid factor by the 3 methods used. A positive correlation (r = 0.56, P less than 0.01) was observed between the rheumaton titre and the RF-RIA result.
Terrestrial Turtle Fossils from New Zealand Refloat Moa's Ark
Publisher: American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH)
Date: 14-03-2011
DOI: 10.1643/CH-10-113
Miocene Fossils Reveal Ancient Roots for New Zealand's Endemic Mystacina (Chiroptera) and Its Rainforest Habitat
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 17-06-2015
Necromantodonty, the primitive condition of lower molars among bats
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date: 29-03-2012
A new broad-snouted fossil carettochelyid turtle from a previously unknown Caenozoic deposit in Sarawak, Malaysia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 21-08-2023
Comparative cranial morphology in living and extinct platypuses: Feeding behavior, electroreception, and loss of teeth
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 07-10-2016
Abstract: Comparative morphology in living and extinct platypuses revealed that there was a shift in feeding behavior and sensory efficiency.
New material referable to Wakaleo (Marsupialia: Thylacoleonidae) from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland: revising species boundaries and distributions in Oligo/Miocene marsupial lions
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-06-2014
First Crania and Assessment of Species Boundaries in Nimbadon (Marsupialia: Diprotodontidae) from the Middle Miocene of Australia
Publisher: American Museum of Natural History (BioOne sponsored)
Date: 04-03-2010
DOI: 10.1206/666.1
Phylogenetic diversity, types of endemism and the evolutionary history of New World bats
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-04-2018
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.03260
Two new neoavian taxa with contrasting palaeobiogeographical implications from the early Miocene St Bathans Fauna, New Zealand
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-04-2022
DOI: 10.1007/S10336-022-01981-6
Abstract: Two new neoavian landbirds are reported from the early Miocene St Bathans Fauna from New Zealand. Aegotheles zealan etus sp. nov. is described from several bones, among which, notably, the tarsometatarsus shows more similarity to New Guinean taxa than to Australian—New Zealand species. Zealandornis relictus gen. et sp. nov. is described from a distal end of a humerus and placed in the new family Zealandornithidae, tentatively among the ‘higher landbirds’ Telluraves, with most similarity to coliiforms. The humerus is of similar size to that of species of Colius and its gracile shaft and very shallow sulcus scapulotricipitalis suggests reduced flying ability. The new species of Aegotheles reinforces the Australasian nature of the Zealandian fauna, while in contrast, Zealandornis relictus gen. et sp. nov. appears to have no close relatives. It is as distinct as Acanthisittidae and Strigopidae among birds, or Leiopelmatidae and Sphenodontidae among the herpetofauna, and like them, represents a similar relictual taxon. Together they confer a highly evolutionarily distinctive nature to the Zealandian fauna concomitant with a minimal 60 million years of isolation.
Zoogeographical regions and geospatial patterns of phylogenetic diversity and endemism of New World bats
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-03-2019
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.04194
A NEW SPECIES OF THE WOMBAT WARENDJA FROM LATE MIOCENE DEPOSITS AT RIVERSLEIGH, NORTH‐WEST QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2007
Geochemical exploration for vertebrate fossils using field portable XRF
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2017
Quantitatively assessing mekosuchine crocodile locomotion by geometric morphometric and finite element analysis of the forelimb
Publisher: PeerJ
Date: 15-06-2020
DOI: 10.7717/PEERJ.9349
Abstract: Morphological shifts observed in the fossil record of a lineage potentially indicate concomitant shifts in ecology of that lineage. Mekosuchine crocodiles of Cenozoic Australia display departures from the typical eusuchian body-plan both in the cranium and postcranium. Previous qualitative studies have suggested that these crocodiles had a more terrestrial habitus than extant crocodylians, yet the capacity of mekosuchine locomotion remains to be tested. Limb bone shape, such as diaphyseal cross-section and curvature, has been related to habitual use and locomotory function across a wide variety of taxa. Available specimens of mekosuchine limbs, primarily humeri, are distinctly columnar compared with those of extant crocodylians. Here we apply a quantitative approach to biomechanics in mekosuchine taxa using both geomorphic morphometric and finite element methods to measure bone shape and estimate locomotory stresses in a comparative context. Our results show mekosuchines appear to erge from extant semi-aquatic saltwater and freshwater crocodiles in cross-sectional geometry of the diaphysis and generate different structural stresses between models that simulate sprawling and high-walk gaits. The extant crocodylians display generally rounded cross-sectional diaphyseal outlines, which may provide preliminary indication of resistance to torsional loads that predominate during sprawling gait, whereas mekosuchine humeri appear to vary between a series of elliptical outlines. Mekosuchine structural stresses are comparatively lower than those of the extant crocodylians and reduce under high-walk gait in some instances. This appears to be a function of bending moments induced by differing configurations of diaphyseal curvature. Additionally, the neutral axis of structural stresses is differently oriented in mekosuchines. This suggests a shift in the focus of biomechanical optimisation, from torsional to axial loadings. Our results lend quantitative support to the terrestrial habitus hypothesis in so far as they suggest that mekosuchine humeri occupied a different morphospace than that associated with the semi-aquatic habit. The exact adaptational trajectory of mekosuchines, however, remains to be fully quantified. Novel forms appear to emerge among mekosuchines during the late Cenozoic. Their adaptational function is considered here possible applications include navigation of uneven terrain and burrowing.
The late Cenozoic passerine avifauna from Rackham’s Roost Site, Riversleigh, Australia
Publisher: Australian Museum
Date: 16-11-2016
Revision of Wabularoo, an early macropodid kangaroo from mid-Cenozoic deposits of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 21-01-2015
A New Order of Tertiary Zalambdodont Marsupials
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 25-03-1988
DOI: 10.1126/SCIENCE.239.4847.1528
Abstract: Yalkaparidon coheni and Yalkaparidon jonesi are described here as the first-known members of the marsupial family Yalkaparidontidae and order Yalkaparidontia. Before discovery of these zalambdodont marsupials in unnamed Tertiary sediments from northwestern Queensland, only five orders of australidelphian marsupials were known. Dental and basicranial morphology suggest that notoryctids and yalkaparidontids, which both have highly specialized zalambdodont molars, are dentally convergent. Yalkaparidontids lived in lowland rainforests of northern Australia and appear to have vanished, with the rainforests, sometime in the middle to late Tertiary. Discovery of yalkaparidontids demonstrates a significantly greater breadth of ersity for Australian marsupials.
Australia's oldest marsupial fossils and their biogeographical implications
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 26-03-2008
Xenorhinos bhatnagari sp. nov., a new, nasal‐emitting trident bat (Rhinonycteridae, Rhinolophoidea) from early Miocene forests in northern Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-03-2023
DOI: 10.1002/AR.25210
Abstract: A new Old World trident bat (Rhinonycteridae) is described from an early Miocene cave deposit in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland, Australia. Living rhinonycterids comprise a small family of insect‐eating, nasal‐emitting rhinolophoid bats from Africa, Madagascar, Seychelles, the Middle East, and northern Australia. The new fossil species is one of at least 12 rhinonycterid species known from the Oligo‐Miocene cave deposits at Riversleigh. We refer the new species to the genus Xenorhinos (Hand, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology , 18, 430–439, 1998a) because it shares a number of unusual cranial features with the type and only other species of the genus, X. halli , including a broad rostrum, very wide interorbital region, pronounced ventral flexion of the rostrum, very constricted sphenoidal bridge, and, within the nasal fossa, reduced bony ision, and relatively well developed turbinals. Xenorhinos species lived in northern Australia during the global Miocene Climatic Optimum, in closed wet forests, unlike the drier habitats that trident bats largely inhabit today. Our phylogenetic analysis suggests that more than one dispersal event gave rise to the Australian rhinonycterid radiation, with two lineages having sister‐group relationships with non‐Australian taxa.
A New Early Eocene (Ypresian) Bat from Pourcy, Paris Basin, France, with Comments on Patterns of Diversity in the Earliest Chiropterans
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-01-2015
Cranial shape variation and phylogenetic relationships of extinct and extant Old World leaf-nosed bats
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 17-07-2016
Hammer-toothed 'marsupial skinks' from the Australian Cenozoic
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 20-04-2011
Abstract: Extinct species of Malleodectes gen. nov. from Middle to Late Miocene deposits of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland, Australia are enigmatic, highly specialized, probably snail-eating marsupials. Dentally, they closely resemble a bizarre group of living heterodont, wet forest scincid lizards from Australia ( Cyclodomorphus ) that may well have outcompeted them as snail-eaters when the closed forests of central Australia began to decline. Although there are scincids known from the same Miocene deposits at Riversleigh, these are relatively plesiomorphic, generalized feeders. This appears to be the most striking ex le known of dental convergence and possible competition between a mammal and a lizard, which in the long run worked out better for the lizards.
A swan-sized fossil anatid (Aves: Anatidae) from the early Miocene St Bathans Fauna of New Zealand
Publisher: Magnolia Press
Date: 20-07-1998
DOI: 10.11646/ZOOTAXA.5168.1.3
Abstract: A large fossil anserine-like anatid (Aves, Anatidae, Notochen bannockburnensis gen. et sp. nov.) is described based on a distal humerus from the lower Bannockburn Formation, early Miocene (19–16 Ma), St Bathans Fauna from New Zealand. Its morphology and size suggest that this taxon represents an early swan rather than a goose. Extant anserines are split into Northern and Southern Hemisphere clades. The St Bathans Fauna is known to have the oldest anserines in the Southern Hemisphere, unnamed cereopsines perhaps ancestral to species of Cnemiornis (New Zealand geese). The elongate and flat morphology of the tuberculum supracondylare ventrale of the new species, however, preclude affinities with cereopsines. It is a rare taxon and the eighth anatid represented in the fauna and is the largest known anseriform from the Oligo-Miocene of Australasia. We also reassess other large anatid specimens from the St Bathans Fauna and identify Miotadorna catrionae Tennyson, Greer, Lubbe, Marx, Richards, Giovanardi & Rawlence, 2022 as a junior synonym of Miotadorna sanctibathansi Worthy, Tennyson, Jones, McNamara & Douglas, 2007.
Prehistoric Australasia
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2023
Abstract: For most of the past 300 million years, the world’s continents were interlinked as the supercontinents Pangaea and then Gondwana. Around 50 million years ago, Australia tore itself free from Antarctica to become the huge, splendidly isolated island it is today. Over time, its creatures began to evolve in ways not seen anywhere else on Earth, with tree-climbing crocodiles, gigantic venomous lizards, walking omnivorous bats and flesh-eating kangaroos roaming the continent. Prehistoric Australasia: Visions of Evolution and Extinction presents some of the most extraordinary creatures the world has ever seen – all unique to Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand and their surrounding islands. Over 100 meticulously painted panoramas by palaeoartist Peter Schouten are accompanied by descriptions of the unique environments and features of these animals, written by four of Australia’s foremost palaeontologists. This book explores the nature and timing of extinction events in the Southern Hemisphere, considers whether some of these losses might be able to be reversed, and how we can use the fossil record to help save today’s critically endangered species. Through stunning artwork and fascinating text, Prehistoric Australasia brings this globally unique transformation over time to glorious, colourful life.
A bizarre new family of marsupialia (incertae sedis) from the early Pliocene of northeastern Australia: Implications for the phylogeny of bunodont marsupials
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 07-2008
DOI: 10.1666/06-124.1
Siderophore‐Assisted Dissolution of Iron(III) Hydroxide Oxides from Iron‐Rich Fossil Matrices
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-2020
Morphological variation in the dentition and skull of the Australian ghost bat, Macroderma gigas (Microchiroptera: Megadermatidae)
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 1990
DOI: 10.1071/ZO9900263
Abstract: Morphological variation in the dentition and some cranial characters of the Australian ghost bat, Macroderma gigas, is reviewed by means of univariate and multivariate analyses. Specimens examined are drawn from existing populations across northern Australia also included for parts of this study are mummified remains from southern central South Australia and late Pleistocene subfossil specimens from south-western Western Australia. No clear-cut geographic pattern in morphological variation in M. gigas is indicated by multivariate anlysis (i.e. principal components analysis), although there is some evidence for clinal variation from univariate analysis (i.e. Scheffe's multiple-comparions procedure). Northern Australian ghost bats (with the exception of north-eastern Australian in ~duals) tend to be smaller than their southern counterparts. Sexual dimorphism appears to be low. Independent patterns of covariation among characters are extracted by principal components analysis: cheek tooth widths cluster separately from lengths lengths and widths of the same teeth cluster separately from those of occluding teeth and cranial measurements cluster separately from tooth measurements. Patterns in the data suggest that the number of characters needed to be examined in future morphometric studies of the vulnerable ghost bat can be significantly reduced.
A new Oligo–Miocene marsupial lion from Australia and revision of the family Thylacoleonidae
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 06-12-2017
New Tertiary koala (Marsupialia, Phascolarctidae) from Riversleigh, Australia, with a revision of phascolarctid phylogenetics, paleoecology, and paleobiodiversity
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2012
The identification of Oligo-Miocene mammalian palaeocommunities from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Australia and an appraisal of palaeoecological techniques
Publisher: PeerJ
Date: 30-06-2017
DOI: 10.7717/PEERJ.3511
Abstract: Fourteen of the best s led Oligo-Miocene local faunas from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, north-western Queensland, Australia are analysed using classification and ordination techniques to identify potential mammalian palaeocommunities and palaeocommunity types . Abundance data for these faunas are used, for the first time, in conjunction with presence/absence data. An early Miocene Faunal Zone B and two middle Miocene Faunal Zone C palaeocommunities are recognised, as well as one palaeocommunity type. Change in palaeocommunity structure, between the early Miocene and middle Miocene, may be the result of significant climate change during the Miocene Carbon Isotope Excursion. The complexes of local faunas identified will allow researchers to use novel palaeocommunities in future analyses of Riversleigh’s fossil faunas. The utility of some palaeoecological multivariate indices and techniques is examined. The Dice index is found to outperform other binary similarity/distance coefficients, while the UPGMA algorithm is more useful than neighbour joining. Evidence is equivocal for the usefulness of presence/absence data compared to abundance.
Traditional and computed tomographic (CT) techniques link modern and Cenozoic fruits of Pleiogynium (Anacardiaceae) from Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 25-09-2015
Revision in the diprotodontid marsupial genus Neohelos: Systematics and biostratigraphy
Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk Instytut Paleobiologii (Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Date: 2013
First known extinct feathertail possums (Acrobatidae, Marsupialia): palaeobiodiversity, phylogenetics, palaeoecology and palaeogeography
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 27-08-2023
Phylogenetic relationships of the Australian Oligo-Miocene ratite Emuarius gidju Casuariidae
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2014
Abstract: In Australia, ratites (Aves: Palaeognathae) are represented in the extant fauna by the family Casuariidae with 1 species of emu Dromaius novaehollandiae and 1 cassowary Casuarius casuarius. The Australian fossil record reveals no other extinct ratite families but there are a number of other casuariid species. Most significant of these, due to its Oligo-Miocene age and because it is known from abundant material, is Emuarius gidju. Here, we describe additional material and confirm that the taxon had a temporal range of Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene (approximately 24-15 Ma). We reveal new morphological details, including notably that the species had relatively much smaller eyes than D. novaehollandiae, in addition to a less well-developed cursorial ability, as inferred from its pelvic limb. In these respects, Emuarius is similar to Casuarius and suggest that it was adapted to denser vegetation than the open woodlands and grasslands that characterise much of Australia today and to which D. novaehollandiae, with its large eyes and enhanced cursorial ability, is strongly adapted. Emuarius was compared to and found to be distinct from the poorly provenanced Australian fossil species C. lydekkeri. We conducted a phylogenetic analysis of morphological data that robustly shows that E. gidju is the sister taxon of Dromaius and together these taxa form a clade that is sister to Casuarius. This indicates that the evolution towards enhanced cursorality that characterises Dromaius took place after the ergence of the emu-cassowary lineages and was likely not the driving mechanism of this ergence. Comparisons between D. novaehollandiae and D. baudinianus revealed no qualitative skeletal differences and we suggest that the latter taxon is best considered to be an island dwarf that should be taxonomically recognized at a subspecific level only.
New specimens of the logrunner Orthonyx kaldowinyeri ( Passeriformes: Orthonychidae) from the Oligo-Miocene of Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 10-12-2014
A new species of Manuherikia (Aves: Anatidae) provides evidence of faunal turnover in the St Bathans Fauna, New Zealand
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2029
Virtual reconstruction and prey size preference in the mid cenozoic thylacinid, Nimbacinus dicksoni (Thylacinidae, Marsupialia)
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 09-04-2014
An evening bat (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from the late Early Eocene of France, with comments on the antiquity of modern bats
Publisher: Association Palaeovertebrata
Date: 08-2016
DOI: 10.18563/PV.40.2.E2
The extinct flightless mihirungs (Aves: Dromornithidae): cranial anatomy, a new species and assessment of Oligo-Miocene lineage diversity.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 18-02-2016
Dwarfism and Feeding Behaviours in Oligo-Miocene Crocodiles from Riversleigh, Northwestern Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk Instytut Paleobiologii (Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Date: 2016
Variation in the pelvic and pectoral girdles of Australian Oligo–Miocene mekosuchine crocodiles with implications for locomotion and habitus
Publisher: PeerJ
Date: 30-06-2017
DOI: 10.7717/PEERJ.3501
Abstract: Australian Oligo–Miocene mekosuchines (Crocodylia Crocodyloidea) display wide ersity in cranial shape and inferred hunting strategies. Terrestrial habitus has been inferred for these distinctive predators. A direct morphological signal for locomotion can be expected in the postcrania, particularly the pelvic and pectoral girdles. Here we describe fossil materials of the girdles, which chart their morphological variation in the subfamily from Eocene through to Middle Miocene. Over this period, both girdles undergo significant morphological changes. Notably, an enclosed, ventrally orientated acetabulum in the ilium is developed in one lineage. This recapitulates the erect parasagittal configuration of the pelvic limb seen in many Mesozoic crocodylomorph lineages, suggesting consistent use of erect high-walking in these mekosuchines. Other pelves from the same Oligo–Miocene deposits display morphology closer to modern crocodilians, suggesting a partitioning of locomotory strategy among sympatric mekosuchines. Plesiomorphic and derived pelvic girdles are distinguishable by parsimony analysis, and the earliest ex les of the mekosuchine pelvis more closely resemble gavialids and alligatorids while latter forms converge on crown group crocodylids in the morphology of the iliac crest. This suggests that a revaluation of the base relationship of Mekosuchinae within Eusuchia is necessary.
New ages of the world's largest-ever marsupial: Diprotodon optatum from Pleistocene Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2021
Integrating ecology and economics: Illustrating the need to resolve the conflicts of space and time
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-1997
Australia's first fossil marsupial mole (Notoryctemorphia) resolves controversies about their evolution and palaeoenvironmental origins
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 03-11-2011
Abstract: Fossils of a marsupial mole (Marsupialia, Notoryctemorphia, Notoryctidae) are described from early Miocene deposits in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland, Australia. These represent the first unequivocal fossil record of the order Notoryctemorphia, the two living species of which are among the world's most specialized and bizarre mammals, but which are also convergent on certain fossorial placental mammals (most notably chrysochlorid golden moles). The fossil remains are genuinely ‘transitional', documenting an intermediate stage in the acquisition of a number of specializations and showing that one of these—the dental morphology known as zalambdodonty—was acquired via a different evolutionary pathway than in placentals. They, thus, document a clear case of evolutionary convergence (rather than parallelism) between only distantly related and geographically isolated mammalian lineages—marsupial moles on the island continent of Australia and placental moles on most other, at least intermittently connected continents. In contrast to earlier presumptions about a relationship between the highly specialized body form of the blind, earless, burrowing marsupial moles and desert habitats, it is now clear that archaic burrowing marsupial moles were adapted to and probably originated in wet forest palaeoenvironments, preadapting them to movement through drier soils in the xeric environments of Australia that developed during the Neogene.
Multivariate analyses of Cenozoic mammalian faunas from Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2006
Recycling of concrete made with brick aggregate: An extended study
Publisher: Coventry University and The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Centre for By-products Utilization
Date: 2019
Decoupling Functional and Morphological Convergence, the Study Case of Fossorial Mammalia
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 21-04-2020
A common name for the bat family Rhinonycteridae—the Trident Bats
Publisher: Magnolia Press
Date: 28-10-2016
DOI: 10.11646/ZOOTAXA.4179.1.7
Abstract: Recent elevation in the rank of J.E. Gray’s (1866) ‘Leaf-nosed Bats’ the Rhinonycterina to family level recognised the phylogenetic uniqueness of bats in the extant genera Cloeotis, Paratriaenops, Rhinonicteris and Triaenops, and the fossil genera Brachipposideros and Brevipalatus (Foley et al. 2015). In the systematic summary of that paper, attention was drawn to the issue of correct nomenclature because of past ambiguity around the appropriate spelling of the type genus Rhinonicteris (see also Simmons 2005 Armstrong 2006). However, no suggestion was made for the common name of the Rhinonycteridae, and that used for the Hipposideridae was simply duplicated—‘Old World Leaf-nosed Bats’. It would be helpful for this newly distinguished family to have its own appellation—to avoid unnecessary confusion in the wider literature, and to recognise its distinctiveness and evolutionary history.
Mammalian lineages and the biostratigraphy and biochronology of Cenozoic faunas from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Australia
Publisher: Scandinavian University Press / Universitetsforlaget AS
Date: 2016
DOI: 10.1111/LET.12131
A new, giant platypus, Obdurodon tharalkooschild, sp. nov. (Monotremata, Ornithorhynchidae), from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 11-2013
Early to middle Miocene monsoon climate in Australia: Comment
Publisher: Geological Society of America
Date: 22-05-0044
DOI: 10.1130/G32600C.1
Miocene mammal reveals a Mesozoic ghost lineage on insular New Zealand, southwest Pacific
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 19-12-2006
Abstract: New Zealand (NZ) has long been upheld as the archetypical ex le of a land where the biota evolved without nonvolant terrestrial mammals. Their absence before human arrival is mysterious, because NZ was still attached to East Antarctica in the Early Cretaceous when a variety of terrestrial mammals occupied the adjacent Australian portion of Gondwana. Here we report discovery of a nonvolant mammal from Miocene (19–16 Ma) sediments of the Manuherikia Group near St Bathans (SB) in Central Otago, South Island, NZ. A partial relatively plesiomorphic femur and two autapomorphically specialized partial mandibles represent at least one mouse-sized mammal of unknown relationships. The material implies the existence of one or more ghost lineages, at least one of which (based on the relatively plesiomorphic partial femur) spanned the Middle Miocene to at least the Early Cretaceous, probably before the time of ergence of marsupials and placentals Ma. Its presence in NZ in the Middle Miocene and apparent absence from Australia and other adjacent landmasses at this time appear to reflect a Gondwanan vicariant event and imply persistence of emergent land during the Oligocene marine transgression of NZ. Nonvolant terrestrial mammals disappeared from NZ some time since the Middle Miocene, possibly because of late Neogene climatic cooling.
Prenatal Developmental Trajectories of Fluctuating Asymmetry in Bat Humeri
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 26-05-2021
DOI: 10.3389/FCELL.2021.639522
Abstract: Fluctuating asymmetry (random fluctuations between the left and right sides of the body) has been interpreted as an index to quantify both the developmental instabilities and homeostatic capabilities of organisms, linking the phenotypic and genotypic aspects of morphogenesis. However, studying the ontogenesis of fluctuating asymmetry has been limited to mostly model organisms in postnatal stages, missing prenatal trajectories of asymmetry that could better elucidate decoupled developmental pathways controlling symmetric bone elongation and thickening. In this study, we quantified the presence and magnitude of asymmetry during the prenatal development of bats, focusing on the humerus, a highly specialized bone adapted in bats to perform under multiple functional demands. We deconstructed levels of asymmetry by measuring the longitudinal and cross-sectional asymmetry of the humerus using a combination of linear measurements and geometric morphometrics. We tested the presence of different types of asymmetry and calculated the magnitude of size-controlled fluctuating asymmetry to assess developmental instability. Statistical support for the presence of fluctuating asymmetry was found for both longitudinal and cross-sectional asymmetry, explaining on average 16% of asymmetric variation. Significant directional asymmetry accounted for less than 6.6% of asymmetric variation. Both measures of fluctuating asymmetry remained relatively stable throughout ontogeny, but cross-sectional asymmetry was significantly different across developmental stages. Finally, we did not find a correspondence between developmental patterns of longitudinal and cross-sectional asymmetry, indicating that processes promoting symmetrical bone elongation and thickening work independently. We suggest various functional pressures linked to newborn bats’ ecology associated with longitudinal (altricial flight capabilities) and cross-sectional (precocial clinging ability) developmental asymmetry differentially. We hypothesize that stable magnitudes of fluctuating asymmetry across development could indicate the presence of developmental mechanisms buffering developmental instability.
Quail-thrushes from the Miocene of northern Australia
Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk Instytut Paleobiologii (Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Date: 2018
Synchrotron X-ray imaging of inclusions in amber | Imagerie par rayonnement X synchrotron d'inclusions dans l'ambre
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2010
Global elongation and high shape flexibility as an evolutionary hypothesis of accommodating mammalian brains into skulls
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-02-2021
DOI: 10.1111/EVO.14163
New material of Barawertornis tedfordi, a dromornithid bird from the Oligo-Miocene of Australia, and its phylogenetic implications. In Proceedings of the VII International Meeting of the Society of Av
Publisher: Australian Museum
Date: 26-05-2010
Australian Oligo-Miocene Mystacinids (Microchiroptera): Upper dentition, new taxa and divergence of New Zealand species
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2005
A new family of bizarre durophagous carnivorous marsupials from Miocene deposits in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-05-2016
DOI: 10.1038/SREP26911
Abstract: A new specimen of the bizarrely specialised Malleodectes mirabilis from middle Miocene deposits in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area provides the first and only information about the molar dentition of this strange group of extinct marsupials. Apart from striking autapomorphies such as the enormous P3, other dental features such as stylar cusp D being larger than B suggest it belongs in the Order Dasyuromorphia. Phylogenetic analysis of 62 craniodental characters places Malleodectes within Dasyuromorphia albeit with weak support and without indication of specific relationships to any of the three established families (Dasyuridae, Myrmecobiidae and Thylacinidae). Accordingly we have allocated Malleodectes to the new family, Malleodectidae. Some features suggest potential links to previously named dasyuromorphians from Riversleigh (e.g., Ganbulanyi ) but these are too poorly known to test this possibility. Although the original interpretation of a steeply declining molar row in Malleodectes can be rejected, it continues to seem likely that malleodectids specialised on snails but probably also consumed a wider range of prey items including small vertebrates. Whatever their actual diet, malleodectids appear to have filled a niche in Australia’s rainforests that has not been occupied by any other mammal group anywhere in the world from the Miocene onwards.
A geometric morphometric analysis of variation in Australian frog ilia and taxonomic interpretations
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-09-2023
DOI: 10.1002/JMOR.21642
Paleobiological implications of the bone histology of the extinct Australian marsupial Nimbadon lavarackorum
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 05-2023
DOI: 10.1017/JPA.2023.22
Abstract: Despite the recognition that bone histology provides much information about the life history and biology of extinct animals, osteohistology of extinct marsupials is sorely lacking. We studied the bone histology of the ca. 15-million-year-old Nimbadon lavarackorum from Australia to obtain insight into its biology. The histology of thin sections of five femora and five tibiae of juveniles, subadult, and adult Nimbadon lavarackorum was studied. Growth marks in the bones suggest that N . lavarackorum took at least 7–8 years (and likely longer) to reach skeletal maturity. The predominant bone tissue during early ontogeny is parallel-fibered bone, whereas an even slower rate of bone formation is indicated by the presence of lamellar bone tissue in the periosteal parts of the compacta in older in iduals. Deposition of bone was interrupted periodically by lines of arrested growth or annuli. This cyclical growth strategy indicates that growth in N . lavarackorum was affected by the prevailing environmental conditions and available resources, as well as seasonal physiological factors such as decreasing body temperatures and metabolic rates.
Sheath-tailed bats (Chiroptera: Emballonuridae) from the early Pleistocene Rackham’s Roost Site, Riversleigh World Heritage Area, and the distribution of northern Australian emballonurid species
Publisher: PeerJ
Date: 25-02-2021
DOI: 10.7717/PEERJ.10857
Abstract: Sheath-tailed bats (Family Emballonuridae) from the early Pleistocene Rackham’s Roost Site cave deposit in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, north-western Queensland are the oldest recorded occurrence for the family in Australia. The fossil remains consist of maxillary and dentary fragments, as well as isolated teeth, but until now their precise identity has not been assessed. Our study indicates that at least three taxa are represented, and these are distinguished from other Australian emballonurids based on morphometric analysis of craniodental features. Most of the Rackham’s Roost Site emballonurid remains are referrable to the modern species Taphozous georgianus Thomas, 1915, but the extant species T. troughtoni Tate, 1952 also appears to be present, as well as a very large, as-yet undetermined species of Saccolaimus Temminck, 1838. We identify craniodental features that clearly distinguish T. georgianus from the externally very similar T. troughtoni . Results suggest that the distributions of T. georgianus and T. troughtoni may have overlapped in north-western Queensland since at least the early Pleistocene.
Herds Overhead: Nimbadon lavarackorum (Diprotodontidae), Heavyweight Marsupial Herbivores in the Miocene Forests of Australia
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 21-11-2012
Ganguroo robustiter, sp. Nov. (Macropodoidea, Marsupialia), a middle to early late Miocene basal macropodid from Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 22-06-2015
The use of MSR (Minimum Sample Richness) for sample assemblage comparisons
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2011
DOI: 10.1666/09050.1
Abstract: Minimum S le Richness (MSR) is defined as the smallest number of taxa that must be recorded in a s le to achieve a given level of inter-assemblage classification accuracy. MSR is calculated from known or estimated richness and taxonomic similarity. Here we test MSR for strengths and weaknesses by using 167 published mammalian local faunas from the Paleogene and early Neogene of the Quercy and Limagne area (Massif Central, southwestern France), and then apply MSR to 84 Oligo-Miocene faunas from Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland, Australia. In many cases, MSR is able to detect the assemblages in the data set that are potentially too incomplete to be used in a similarity-based comparative taxonomic analysis. The results show that the use of MSR significantly improves the quality of the clustering of fossil assemblages. We conclude that this method can screen s le assemblages that are not representative of their underlying original living communities. Ultimately, it can be used to identify which assemblages require further s ling before being included in a comparative analysis.
A new Miocene carnivorous marsupial, Barinya kutjamarpensis (Dasyuromorphia), from central Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 30-06-2016
Reconstructing a Miocene pitfall trap: Recognition and interpretation of fossiliferous Cenozoic palaeokarst
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2014
3D Morphometric Analysis Reveals Similar Ecomorphs for Early Kangaroos (Macropodidae) and Fanged Kangaroos (Balbaridae) from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-06-2020
Sexually Dimorphic Bandicoots (Marsupialia: Peramelemorphia) From the Oligo-Miocene of Australia, First Cranial Ontogeny for Fossil Bandicoots and New Species Descriptions
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-09-2015
A new species of Miocene wombat (Marsupialia, Vombatiformes) from Riversleigh, Queensland, Australia, and implications for the evolutionary history of the Vombatidae
Publisher: Coquina Press
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.26879/870
Three new Miocene species of musky rat-kangaroos (Hypsiprymnodontidae, Macropodoidea): Description, phylogenetics and paleoecology
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-2014
A new Eocene species of presbyornithid (Aves, Anseriformes) from Murgon, Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 20-03-2023
Dietary and body mass reconstruction of the Miocene neotropical batNotonycteris magdalenensis(Phyllostomidae) from La Venta, Colombia
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 10-12-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.12.09.418491
Abstract: The middle Miocene La Venta bat fauna is the most erse bat palaeocommunity in South America, with at least 14 species recorded. They include the oldest plant-visiting bat in the New World, and some of the earliest representatives of the extant families Phyllostomidae, Thyropteridae and Noctilionidae. La Venta’s Notonycteris magdalenensis is an extinct member of the subfamily Phyllostominae, a group of modern Neotropical animalivorous and omnivorous bats, and is commonly included in studies of the evolution of Neotropical bats, but aspects of its biology remain unclear. In this study, we used a multivariate dental topography analysis (DTA) to reconstruct the likely diet of N. magdalenensis by quantitatively comparing measures of molar complexity with that of 25 modern phyllostomid and noctilionid species representing all major dietary habits in bats. We found clear differences in molar complexity between dietary guilds, indicating that DTA is potentially an informative tool to study bat ecomorphology. Our results suggest N. magdalenensis was probably an omnivore or insectivore, rather than a carnivore like its modern relatives Chrotopterus auritus and V ryum spectrum . Also, we reconstructed the body mass of N. magdalenensis to be ∼50 g, which is larger than most insectivorous bats, but smaller than most carnivorous bats. Our results confirm that Notonycteris magdalenensis was probably not a specialised carnivore. It remains to be demonstrated that the specialised carnivory ecological niche was occupied by the same lineage of phyllostomines from at least the middle Miocene. Combining our diet and body mass reconstructions, we suggest that N. magdalenensis exhibits morphological pre-adaptations crucial for the evolution of specialised carnivory.
Earliest modern bandicoot and bilby (Marsupialia, Peramelidae and Thylacomyidae) from the Miocene of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-2014
The Burramys Project: a conservationist's reach should exceed history's grasp, or what is the fossil record for?
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 04-11-2019
Abstract: The fossil record provides important information about changes in species ersity, distribution, habitat and abundance through time. As we understand more about these changes, it becomes possible to envisage a wider range of options for translocations in a world where sustainability of habitats is under increasing threat. The Critically Endangered alpine/subalpine mountain pygmy-possum, Burramys parvus (Marsupialia, Burramyidae), is threatened by global heating. Using conventional strategies, there would be no viable pathway for stopping this iconic marsupial from becoming extinct. The fossil record, however, has inspired an innovative strategy for saving this species. This lineage has been represented over 25 Myr by a series of species always inhabiting lowland, wet forest palaeocommunities. These fossil deposits have been found in what is now the Tirari Desert, South Australia (24 Ma), savannah woodlands of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Queensland (approx. 24–15 Ma) and savannah grasslands of Hamilton, Victoria (approx. 4 Ma). This palaeoecological record has led to the proposal overviewed here to construct a lowland breeding facility with the goal of monitoring the outcome of introducing this possum back into the pre-Quaternary core habitat for the lineage. If this project succeeds, similar approaches could be considered for other climate-change-threatened Australian species such as the southern corroboree frog ( Pseudophryne corroboree ) and the western sw tortoise ( Pseudemydura umbrina ). This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The past is a foreign country: how much can the fossil record actually inform conservation?’
Anew cracticid (Passeriformes : Cracticidae) from the Early Miocene of Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-2013
DOI: 10.1071/MU13017
First eocene bat from Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-09-1994
The upper dentition and relationships of the enigmatic Australian Cretaceous mammal Kollikodon ritchiei
Publisher: Museums Victoria
Date: 2016
Postcranial heterochrony, modularity, integration and disparity in the prenatal ossification in bats (Chiroptera)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-03-2019
Earliest known record of a hypercarnivorous dasyurid (Marsupialia), from newly discovered carbonates beyond the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, north Queensland
Publisher: Museums Victoria
Date: 2016
Miocene mystacinids (Chiroptera, Noctilionoidea) indicate a long history for endemic bats in New Zealand
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 11-2013
Cookeroo, a new genus of fossil kangaroo (Marsupialia, Macropodidae) from the Oligo-Miocene of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 17-02-2016
Going underground: postcranial morphology of the early Miocene marsupial mole Naraboryctes philcreaseri and the evolution of fossoriality in notoryctemorphians
Publisher: Museums Victoria
Date: 2016
Wading a lost southern connection: Miocene Fossils from New Zealand reveal a new lineage of shorebirds (Charadriiformes) linking Gondwanan avifaunas.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 13-10-2016
Palaeoecology of Oligo-Miocene macropodoids determined from craniodental and calcaneal data
Publisher: Museums Victoria
Date: 2016
Moa's Ark: Miocene Fossils Reveal the Great Antiquity of Moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) in Zealandia
Publisher: Australian Museum
Date: 26-05-2010
New material of Gumardee pascuali Flannery et al., 1983 (Marsupialia: Macropodiformes) and two new species from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Museums Victoria
Date: 2016
Sheathbill-like birds (Charadriiformes: Chionoidea) from the Oligocene and Miocene of Australasia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 25-07-2016
Patterns of ontogenetic evolution across extant marsupials reflect different allometric pathways to ecomorphological diversity
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-05-2023
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-023-38365-0
Abstract: The relatively high level of morphological ersity in Australasian marsupials compared to that observed among American marsupials remains poorly understood. We undertake a comprehensive macroevolutionary analysis of ontogenetic allometry of American and Australasian marsupials to examine whether the contrasting levels of morphological ersity in these groups are reflected in their patterns of allometric evolution. We collate ontogenetic series for 62 species and 18 families of marsupials ( n = 2091 specimens), spanning across extant marsupial ersity. Our results demonstrate significant lability of ontogenetic allometric trajectories among American and Australasian marsupials, yet a phylogenetically structured pattern of allometric evolution is preserved. Here we show that species erging more than 65 million years ago converge in their patterns of ontogenetic allometry under animalivorous and herbivorous diets, and that Australasian marsupials do not show significantly greater variation in patterns of ontogenetic allometry than their American counterparts, despite displaying greater magnitudes of extant ecomorphological ersity.
A new diminutive durophagous Miocene dasyuromorphian (Marsupialia, Malleodectidae) from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northern Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 30-09-2022
Untangling the ecological signal in the dental morphology in the bat superfamily Noctilionoidea
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-03-2022
First comprehensive analysis of cranial ontogeny in a fossil marsupial-from a 15-million-year-old cave deposit in Northern Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 14-07-2010
Humeral morphology of the early Eocene mekosuchine crocodylian Kambara from the Tingamarra Local Fauna southeastern Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-2012
Phylogeny and foraging behaviour shape modular morphological variation in bat humeri
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-12-2021
DOI: 10.1111/JOA.13380
Abstract: Bats show a remarkable ecological ersity that is reflected both in dietary and foraging guilds (FGs). Cranial ecomorphological adaptations linked to diet have been widely studied in bats, using a variety of anatomical, computational and mathematical approaches. However, foraging‐related ecomorphological adaptations and the concordance between cranial and postcranial morphological adaptations remain unexamined in bats and limited to the interpretation of traditional aerodynamic properties of the wing (e.g. wing loading [WL] and aspect ratio [AR]). For this reason, the postcranial ecomorphological ersity in bats and its drivers remain understudied. Using 3D virtual modelling and geometric morphometrics (GMM), we explored the phylogenetic, ecological and biological drivers of humeral morphology in bats, evaluating the presence and magnitude of modularity and integration. To explore decoupled patterns of variation across the bone, we analysed whole‐bone shape, diaphyseal and epiphyseal shape. We also tested whether traditional aerodynamic wing traits correlate with humeral shape. By studying 37 species from 20 families (covering all FGs and 85% of dietary guilds), we found similar patterns of variation in whole‐bone and diaphyseal shape and unique variation patterns in epiphyseal shape. Phylogeny, diet and FG significantly correlated with shape variation at all levels, whereas size only had a significant effect on epiphyseal morphology. We found a significant phylogenetic signal in all levels of humeral shape. Epiphyseal shape significantly correlated with wing AR. Statistical support for a diaphyseal‐epiphyseal modular partition of the humerus suggests a functional partition of shape variability. Our study is the first to show within‐structure modular morphological variation in the appendicular skeleton of any living tetrapod. Our results suggest that diaphyseal shape correlates more with phylogeny, whereas epiphyseal shape correlates with diet and FG.
A 50-million-year-old, three-dimensionally preserved bat skull supports an early origin for modern echolocation
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2023
Revision of Oligo-Miocene kangaroos, Ganawamaya and Nambaroo (Marsupialia: Macropodiformes, Balbaridae)
Publisher: Coquina Press
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.26879/747
Additional specimens of the oldest wombatRhizophascolonus crowcrofti(Vombatidae; Marsupialia) from the Wipajiri Formation, South Australia: an intermediate morphology?
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-12-2008
Descriptions of koala fossils from the Miocene of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland and implications forLitokoala(Marsupialia, Phascolarctidae)
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 06-2007
Prenatal allometric trajectories and the developmental basis of postcranial phenotypic diversity in bats (Chiroptera).
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1002/JEZ.B.22846
Abstract: Most morphological and physiological adaptations associated with bat flight are concentrated in the postcranium, reflecting strong functional demands for flight performance. Despite an association between locomotory ersity and trophic differentiation, postcranial morphological ersity in bats remains largely unexplored. Evolutionary developmental biology is a novel approach providing a link between the analysis of genotypic and phenotypic variation resulting from selective pressures. To quantify the morphological ersity of the postcranium in bats and to explore its developmental basis, we reconstructed the postcranial allometric trajectories of nine bat species from different prenatal developmental series, representing five families and both suborders. We tested for allometric growth in Chiroptera and also quantified levels of allometric disparity and inter-trajectory distances. Using a phylogenetic scaffold, we assessed whether ontogenetic differences reflect evolutionary relationships. We found significant allometric growth trajectories in almost all species. Interspecific trajectory distances showed lower variance within Yinpterochiroptera than within Yangochiroptera and between suborders. Each suborder occupied nonoverlapping sections of allometric space, showing changes in the growth rates of specific bones for each suborder. The allometry-corrected disparity was significantly higher in larger species. Statistically significant phylogenetic signal in our results suggests that there is an ontogenetic basis for the postcranial morphological ersity in modern bats. Ancestral state reconstruction also showed an increase in the amount of change in shape with size in the larger species studied. We hypothesize that differences in allometric patterns among bat taxa may reflect a size-dependent evolutionary constraint, whereby variability in body size and allometric patterns are associated.
Early Miocene fossil frogs (Anura: Leiopelmatidae) from New Zealand
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-2013
New Australian oligocene to miocene ringtail possums (pseudocheiridae) and revision of the genus marl
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2009
A new family of bizarre durophagous carnivorous marsupials from Miocene deposits in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland (vol 6, pg 26911, 2016)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-09-2016
DOI: 10.1038/SREP32054
Abstract: Scientific Reports 6: Article number: 26911 published online: 27 May 2016 updated: 07 September 2016 The original version of this Article contained the genus and species name of an unpublished taxon ‘Whollydooleya tomnpatrichorum’. In the Introduction section: “Most recently, an isolated M2 or M3 has been ascribed to a new genus and species, Whollydooleya tomnpatrichorum from Whollydooley Site on Whollydooley Hill, west of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area20.
Biogeographical and Phylogenetic Implications of an Early Miocene Wren (Aves: Passeriformes: Acanthisittidae) from New Zealand
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 24-03-2010
Dietary analysis of an uncharacteristic population of the Mountain Pygmy-possum(Burramys parvus)in the Kosciuszko National Park, New South Wales, Australia
Publisher: PeerJ
Date: 24-01-2019
DOI: 10.7717/PEERJ.6307
Abstract: The Mountain Pygmy-possum ( Burramys parvus ) is a critically endangered marsupial, endemic to alpine regions of southern Australia. We investigated the diet of a recently discovered population of the possum in northern Kosciuszko National Park, NSW, Australia. This new population occurs at elevations well below the once-presumed lower elevation limit of 1,600 m. Faecal material was analysed to determine if dietary composition differed between in iduals in the newly discovered northern population and those in the higher elevation southern population, and to examine how diet was influenced by rainfall in the southern population and seasonal changes in resource availability in the northern population. The diet of B. parvus in the northern population comprised of arthropods, fruits and seeds. Results indicate the diet of both populations shares most of the same invertebrate orders and plant species. However, in the absence of preferred food types available to the southern population, in iduals of the northern population opportunistically consumed different species that were similar to those preferred by in iduals in higher altitude populations. Differing rainfall amounts had a significant effect on diet, with years of below average rainfall having a greater percentage composition and ersity of invertebrates. Seasonal variation was also recorded, with the northern population increasing the ersity of invertebrates in their diet during the Autumn months when Bogong Moths ( Agrotis infusa ) were absent from those sites, raising questions about the possum’s dependence on the species Measurable effects of rainfall amount and seasonal variation on the dietary composition suggest that predicted climatic variability will have a significant impact on its diet, potentially impacting its future survival. Findings suggest that it is likely that B. parvus is not restricted by dietary requirements to its current pattern of distribution. This new understanding needs to be considered when formulating future conservation strategies for this critically endangered species.
Kutjamarcoot brevirostrum gen. et sp. nov., a new short-snouted, early Miocene bandicoot (Marsupialia: Peramelemorphia) from the Kutjamarpu Local Fauna (Wipajiri Formation) in South Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 16-11-2016
Late-Holocene bats of Mé Auré Cave, New Caledonia: Evidence of human consumption and a new species record from the recent past
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 20-07-2011
Abstract: Flying-foxes and smaller, insectivorous bats, as well as birds, frogs, lizards, rodents and humans, are among Holocene vertebrate remains recovered from a cave near Mé Auré on the central southwestern coast of Grande Terre, the main island of New Caledonia, southwest Pacific. New Caledonia is one of the world’s most critically endangered bio ersity hotspots whose native terrestrial mammals consist of nine bat species, six of which are endemic. The Mé Auré Cave deposit accumulated over a period of some 3000 years, from before colonization of the area by people to the present. In the deposit’s upper levels, bat remains approximate the modern New Caledonian fauna – with the notable exception of the first record of a leaf-nosed bat from these islands – and probably represent bats that lived and died in the cave as well as those brought in as prey by barn owls. In the lowest levels, only flying-foxes are represented, their corroded teeth and other evidence suggesting they were cooked and eaten by people. Our data indicate that at least one insectivorous bat species has become extinct during the last 250 years in New Caledonia. Alternatively, it is possible that this leaf-nosed bat continues to be part of the threatened extant New Caledonian bat fauna but has yet to be recorded by modern faunal surveys.
Finding the Minimum Sample Richness (MSR) for multivariate analyses: Implications for palaeoecology
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-2007
Chulpasia and Thylacotinga, late Paleocene-earliest Eocene trans-Antarctic Gondwanan bunodont marsupials: New data from Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2009
Palaeoecological analyses of Riversleigh's Oligo-Miocene sites: Implications for Oligo-Miocene climate change in Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2009
Species abundance, richness and body size evolution of kangaroos (Marsupialia: Macropodiformes) throughout the Oligo-Miocene of Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2017
Two new species of the genus Gumardee (Marsupialia, Macropodiformes) reveal the repeated evolution of bilophodonty in kangaroos
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-01-2022
A new crocodile displaying extreme constriction of the mandible, from the late Oligocene of Riversleigh, Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 24-05-2016
Bearing up well? Understanding the past, present and future of Australia's koalas
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2014
Global elongation and high shape flexibility as an evolutionary hypothesis of accommodating mammalian brains into skulls
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 07-12-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.12.06.410928
Abstract: Little is known about how the large brains of mammals are accommodated into the dazzling ersity of their skulls. It has been suggested that brain shape is influenced by relative brain size, that it evolves or develops according to extrinsic or intrinsic mechanical constraints, and that its shape can provide insights into its proportions and function. Here, we characterise the shape variation among 84 marsupial cranial endocasts of 57 species including fossils, using 3D geometric morphometrics and virtual dissections. Statistical shape analysis revealed four main patterns: over half of endocast shape variation ranges between elongate and straight to globular and inclined little allometric variation with respect to centroid size, and none for relative volume no association between locomotion and endocast shape limited association between endocast shape and previously published histological cortex volumes. Fossil species tend to have smaller cerebral hemispheres. We find ergent endocast shapes in closely related species and within species, and erse morphologies superimposed over the main variation. An evolutionarily and in idually malleable brain with a fundamental tendency to arrange into a spectrum of elongate-to-globular shapes – possibly mostly independent of brain function - may explain the accommodation of brains within the enormous ersity of mammalian skull form.
Untangling the ecological signal in the dental morphology in the bat superfamily Noctilionoidea
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 23-07-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2021.07.21.453269
Abstract: Diet has been linked to the ersification of the bat superfamily Noctilionoidea, a group that underwent an impressive ecological adaptive radiation within Mammalia. For decades, studies have explored morphological adaptations and ersity of noctilionoid bats to reveal traits associated with their ecological ersity. Surprisingly, despite such interest and recent application of novel techniques, ecomorphological studies have failed to fully resolve the link between diet and a critical component of the feeding apparatus: dental morphology. Using multivariate dental topographic analysis and phylogenetic comparative methods, we examined the phylogenetic, biological and ecological signal in the dental morphology of noctilionoid bats. Analysing the lower first molars of 110 species, we explored relationships between diet and dental morphology, accounting for three different dimensions of diet (guild, composition and breadth). Phylogenetic and size-dependent structuring of the dental topography data shows it does not correlate only to diet, highlighting the need to account for multiple sources of variation. Frugivorous noctilionoids have sharper molars than other previously reported frugivorous mammals. Nectarivorous noctilionoids showed reduced lower molar crown height and steepness, whereas animalivorous species had larger molars. Dietary composition suggested that the intensity of exploitation of a resource is also linked to different dimensions of dental morphology. Increasing carnivory positively correlated with MA, explaining the highest proportion of its variation, and increasing frugivory explained the highest proportion of variation in all other variables. Dietary breadth showed generalist species have sharper, more topographically-complex molars, whereas specialist herbivores and specialist animalivores fell at opposite ends in the range of tooth steepness and crown height. Together, the results suggest that adaptations affecting different attributes of dental morphology likely facilitated the dietary ersity and specialisation found in Noctilionoidea.
A new, large-bodied omnivorous bat (Noctilionoidea: Mystacinidae) reveals lost morphological and ecological diversity since the Miocene in New Zealand
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-01-2018
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-017-18403-W
Abstract: A new genus and species of fossil bat is described from New Zealand’s only pre-Pleistocene Cenozoic terrestrial fauna, the early Miocene St Bathans Fauna of Central Otago, South Island. Bayesian total evidence phylogenetic analysis places this new Southern Hemisphere taxon among the burrowing bats (mystacinids) of New Zealand and Australia, although its lower dentition also resembles Africa’s endemic sucker-footed bats (myzopodids). As the first new bat genus to be added to New Zealand’s fauna in more than 150 years, it provides new insight into the original ersity of chiropterans in Australasia. It also underscores the significant decline in morphological ersity that has taken place in the highly distinctive, semi-terrestrial bat family Mystacinidae since the Miocene. This bat was relatively large, with an estimated body mass of ~40 g, and its dentition suggests it had an omnivorous diet. Its striking dental autapomorphies, including development of a large hypocone, signal a shift of diet compared with other mystacinids, and may provide evidence of an adaptive radiation in feeding strategy in this group of noctilionoid bats.
A new hipposiderid genus (Microchiroptera) from an early Miocene bat community in Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2005
Bats that walk: a new evolutionary hypothesis for the terrestrial behaviour of New Zealand's endemic mystacinids
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 2009
Subcellular preservation in giant ostracod sperm from an early miocene cave deposit in Australia
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 07-07-2014
Abstract: Cypridoidean ostracods are one of a number of animal taxa that reproduce with giant sperm, up to 10 000 µm in length, but they are the only group to have aflagellate, filamentous giant sperm. The evolution and function of this highly unusual feature of reproduction with giant sperm are currently unknown. The hypothesis of long-term evolutionary persistence of this kind of reproduction has never been tested. We here report giant sperm discovered by propagation phase contrast X-ray synchrotron micro- and nanotomography, preserved in five Miocene ostracod specimens from Queensland, Australia. The specimens belong to the species Heterocypris collaris Matzke-Karasz et al . 2013 (one male and three females) and Newnhamia mckenziana Matzke-Karasz et al . 2013 (one female). The sperm are not only the oldest petrified gametes on record, but include three-dimensional subcellular preservation. We provide direct evidence that giant sperm have been a feature of this taxon for at least 16 Myr and provide an additional criterion (i.e. longevity) to test hypotheses relating to origin and function of giant sperm in the animal kingdom. We further argue that the highly resistant, most probably chitinous coats of giant ostracod sperm may play a role in delaying decay processes, favouring early mineralization of soft tissue.
A LARGE FRUIT PIGEON (COLUMBIDAE) FROM THE EARLY MIOCENE OF NEW ZEALAND
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 07-2009
Palaeontological note: Earliest australian non-marine bird assemblage from the early eocene tingamurra local fauna, murgon, Southeastern Queensland
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 1994
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