First Mesozoic mammal from Australia—an early Cretaceous monotreme

@article{Archer1985FirstMM,
  title={First Mesozoic mammal from Australia—an early Cretaceous monotreme},
  author={Michael Archer and Tim Fridtjof Flannery and Alexander Ritchie and Ralph E. Molnar},
  journal={Nature},
  year={1985},
  volume={318},
  pages={363-366}
}
Here we describe Australia's first known Mesozoic mammal and the first known early Cretaceous mammal from Gondwanaland. Steropodon galmani n. gen. and sp., discovered in early Cretaceous sediments at Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia, appears to represent an ornithorhynchid-like monotreme. This discovery represents the first record of a fossil mammal from Australia that is older than 22.4±0.05 Myr1,2 and the specimen is, by more than 85Myr, the oldest known monotreme. As the oldest… 
View on Nature
199 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
16
Background Citations
69
Results Citations
3

199 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

A new family of monotremes feom the Creataceous of Australia
TLDR
With four families now known from Australia, it is probable that monotremes originated and diversified in the Australian/Antarctic sector of Gondwana, followed by a single dispersal to the South American sector before or during the early Paleocene.
Mammal teeth from the Cretaceous of Africa
TLDR
The only fossil evidence of mammalian evolution from Africa between late Jurassic and Paleocene, a span of at least 85 million years, is reported, consistent with the hypothesis that marsupials were not present on any Gondwana continents until after the early Cretaceous separation of Africa by the opening of the South Atlantic.
Review of the monotreme fossil record and comparison of palaeontological and molecular data.
  • A. Musser
  • Biology, Medicine
    Comparative biochemistry and physiology. Part A, Molecular & integrative physiology
  • 2003
TLDR
The monotreme fossil record is reviewed and significant new information from additional Cretaceous Australian material is discussed, with particular evidence for the presence of a splenial bone in S. galmani-not seen in therian mammals or in post-Mesozoic monOTreme taxa.
A Cretaceous mammal from Tanzania
We report here the discovery of a Cretaceous mammal from the “Red Sandstone Group” of southwestern Tanzania. This specimen is one of only a very few Cretaceous mammals known from Gondwana in general…
Earliest known Australian Tertiary mammal fauna
TLDR
The discovery of a tooth of the earliest non-volant placental known from Australia, Tingamarra porterorum gen.et sp.
A Jurassic mammal from South America
TLDR
The discovery of a Jurassic mammal represented by a dentary, which is the first, to the authors' knowledge, from South America, indicates that the Australosphenida had diversified and were widespread in Gondwanaland well before the end of the Jurassic, and that mammalian faunas from the Southern Hemisphere already showed a marked distinction from their northern counterparts by the Middle to Late Jurassic.
Miocene mammal reveals a Mesozoic ghost lineage on insular New Zealand, southwest Pacific
TLDR
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.
A New, Giant Platypus, Obdurodon tharalkooschild, sp. nov. (Monotremata, Ornithorhynchidae), from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Australia
TLDR
This species is the largest known ornithorhynchid, fossil or extant, the fourth extinct platypus described, and the second species discovered at Riversleigh, Australia, and exhibits a unique molar morphology that significantly broadens understanding about disparity within this group of monotremes.
AN ENIGMATIC (SYNAPSID?) TOOTH FROM THE EARLY CRETACEOUS OF NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA
Abstract Largely fragmentary fossils from sites in New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland, Australia document terrestrial and marine vertebrate faunas of Aptian–Albian age. The natural cast of a…
Marsupial and monotreme evolution and biogeography
TLDR
The known fossil record and biogeography of both radiations is summarised, with particular attention given to a recent paradigm shift on monotreme evolution, with the latest research suggesting that monotremes are part of an ancient, Gondwanan radiation of mammals that independently evolved a tribosphenic dentition.
...
1
2
3
4
5
...

References

SHOWING 1-6 OF 6 REFERENCES
Recognition of the oldest known fossil marsupials from Australia
TLDR
Evidence is presented that a diverse fauna of diprotodont marsupials existed in Australia in late Oligocene time, giving tangible support to the hypothesis that marsupial have been residents of the Australian continent since the early Tertiary at least.
The lower jaw of an aegialodontid mammal from the Early Cretaceous of Mongolia
TLDR
It follows that the Peramura could not lead to the Tribosphenida, which apparently arose from unknown ‘pantotheres’ with not less than nine postcanine teeth.
The relationships of mammals
TLDR
It is argued that the current views are variously based on an overemphasis of superficial dental similarities, misinterpretation of the structure of the mammalian braincase, and too ready acceptance of parallel evolution amongst the groups concerned.
Toward a Phylogenetic Classification of the Mammalia
Periodically it is worthwhile to assess our knowledge and understanding of mammalian phylogeny and one of its expressions, classification. This short paper is yet another attempt to do so, taking…
The fossil vertebrate record of Australasia
Mesozoic mammals : the first two-thirds of mammalian history