Hostname: page-component-5cf477f64f-fcbfl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-07T04:30:36.870Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Eutherian tarsal bones from the Late Cretaceous of India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

G. V. R. Prasad  and
M. Godinot
G. V. R. Prasad
Affiliation:
P. G. Department of Geology, University of Jammu, Jammu Tawi, India
M. Godinot
Affiliation:
Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, L.A.327, Case Courrier 64 Faculté des Sciences, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095, Montpellier Cedex 05, France
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Eutherian tarsal bones of Late Cretaceous age are reported for the first time from sedimentary beds intercalated with the Deccan Traps of peninsular India. The tarsal bones, represented mainly by calcanea and astragali, occur in association with dental elements of palaeoryctid mammals: Deccanolestes hislopi Prasad and Sahni and D. robustus Prasad, Jaeger, Sahni, Gheerbrant, and Khajuria. Two size variants in the tarsals correlate well with the teeth of D. hislopi and D. robustus. Morphologically, the tarsal complex of Deccanolestes is quite different from that of other Cretaceous eutherians for which the relevant anatomy is known (Protungulatum and Procerberus). Rather, the tarsals of Deccanolestes exhibit a close affinity to the tarsal morphology of Archonta. A large number of tarsal characters indicate a highly arboreal mode of life for these animals. Presence of such specialized animals as early as the Cretaceous suggests that mammals had already diversified their locomotor adaptations by this time.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 68 , Issue 4 , July 1994 , pp. 892 - 902
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Besse, J., Buffetaut, E., Cappetta, H., Courtillot, V., Jaeger, J. J., Montigny, R., Rana, R. S., Sahni, A., Vandamme, D., and Vianey-Liaud, M. 1986. The Deccan Traps (India) and Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary event. Lecture Notes in Earth Science, 8:365–370.Google Scholar
Bhatia, S. B., Prasad, G. V. R., and Rana, R. S. 1990. Deccan volcanism, a Late Cretaceous event: conclusive evidence of ostracode, p. 47–49. In Contributions to the Seminar cum Workshop, IGCP 216 and 245, Chandigarh, 1990.Google Scholar
Cope, E. D. 1881. A new type of Perissodactyla. American Naturalist, 15:1017–1018.Google Scholar
Courtillot, V., Besse, J., Vandamme, D., Montigny, R., Jaeger, J. J., and Cappetta, H. 1986. Deccan flood basalts at the Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary? Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 80:361–374.Google Scholar
Courtillot, V., Feraud, G., Maluski, H., Vandamme, D., Moreau, M. G., and Besse, J. 1988. Deccan flood basalts at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. Nature, 333:843–846.Google Scholar
Decker, R. L., and Szalay, F. S. 1974. Origins and function of the pes in the Eocene Adapidae (Lemuriformes, Primates), p. 261–291. In Jenkins, F. A. (ed.), Primate Locomotion. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Duncan, R. A., and Pyle, D. G. 1988. Rapid eruption of the Deccan flood basalts at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. Nature, 333:841–843.Google Scholar
Emry, R. J., and Thorington, R. W. 1982. Descriptive and comparative osteology of the oldest fossil squirrel, Protosciurus (Rodentia, Sciuridae). Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology, 47:1–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gebo, D. L. 1988. Foot morphology and locomotion adaptation in Eocene Primates. Folia Primatologica, 50:3–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Godinot, M. 1990. An introduction to the history of primate locomotion, p. 45–60. In Jouftroy, F. K., Stack, M. H., and Niemitz, C. (eds.), Gravity, Posture, and Locomotion in Primates, II. Sedicesimo Press, Firenze.Google Scholar
Godinot, M. 1991. Toward the locomotion of two contemporaneous Adapts species. Zeitschrift für Morphologie und Anthropologie, 78:387–405.Google Scholar
Gunnell, G. F. 1989. Evolutionary history of Microsyopoidea (Mammalia, ?Primates) and the relationship between Plesiadapiformes and Primates. University of Michigan Papers on Paleontology, 27:1–157.Google Scholar
Jaeger, J. J., Courtillot, V., and Tapponnier, P. 1989. Paleontological view of the ages of the Deccan Traps, the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary, and the India-Asia collision. Geology, 19:316–319.Google Scholar
Jenkins, F. A. 1974. Tree shrew locomotion and the origins of primate arborealism, p. 85–115. In Jenkins, F. A. (ed.), Primate Locomotion. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Jenkins, F. A., and McClearn, D. 1984. Mechanism of hind foot reversal in climbing mammals. Journal of Morphology, 182:197–219.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jenkins, F. A., and Parrington, F. 1976. The postcranial skeletons of the Triassic mammals Eozostrodon, Megazostrodon, Erythrotherium. Royal Society of London Philosophical Transactions B (Biological Sciences), 273:387–431.Google Scholar
Jouffroy, F. K. 1962. La musculature des membres chez les lémuriens de Madagascar. Etude descriptive et comparative. , , Series A, No. 3860, Order No. 4711, 326 p.Google Scholar
Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. 1977. Evolution of the therian mammals in the Late Cretaceous of Asia. Part II. Postcranial skeleton in Kennalestes and Asioryctes. Palaeontologia Polonica , 37:65–83.Google Scholar
Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. 1978. Evolution of the therian mammals in the Late Cretaceous of Asia. Part III. Postcranial skeleton in Zalambdalestidae. Palaeontologia Polonica, 38:3–41.Google Scholar
Lewis, O. J. 1989. Functional morphology of the evolving hand and foot. Oxford Science Publications, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 359 p.Google Scholar
Lillegraven, J. A. 1969. Latest Cretaceous mammals of upper part of Edmonton Formation of Alberta, Canada, and review of marsupial–placental dichotomy in mammalian evolution. The University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions, Article 50 (Vertebrata 12), 122 p.Google Scholar
Lillegraven, J. A. 1979. Introduction, p. 1–6. In Lillegraven, J. A., Kielan-Jaworowska, Z., and Clemens, W. A. (eds.), Mesozoic Mammals, the First Two-thirds of Mammalian History. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
MacConaill, M. A. 1973. A structuro-functional classification of synovial articular units. Irish Journal of Medical Science, 142:19–26.Google Scholar
Matthew, W. D. 1909. The Carnivora and Insectivora of the Bridger basin, Middle Eocene. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, 9(6):289–567.Google Scholar
Matthew, W. D., and Granger, W. 1915. A revision of Lower Eocene Wasatch and Wind River faunas. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 34(9):311–328.Google Scholar
Prakash, T., Singh, R. Y., and Sahni, A. 1990. Palynofloral assemblage from the Padwar intertrappeans (Jabalpur), M.P., p. 68–69. In Contributions to the Seminar cum Workshop, IGCP 216 and 245, Chandigarh, 1990.Google Scholar
Prasad, G. V. R. 1989. Vertebrate fauna from the infra- and intertrappean beds of Andhra Pradesh: age implications. The Journal of the Geological Society of India, 34:161–173.Google Scholar
Prasad, G. V. R., Jaeger, J. J., Sahni, A., Gheerbrant, E., and Khajuria, C. K. In press. Eutherian mammals from the Upper Cretaceous intertrappean beds of Naskal, Andhra Pradesh, India. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.Google Scholar
Prasad, G. V. R., and Sahni, A. 1988. First Cretaceous mammal from India. Nature, 332:638–640.Google Scholar
Sahni, A. 1990. Deccan volcanism as the terminal Cretaceous catastrophic event: an analysis, p. 110–111. In Contributions to the Seminar cum Workshop, IGCP 216 and 245, Chandigarh, 1990.Google Scholar
Sahni, A., and Bajpai, S. 1988. Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary events: the fossil vertebrate, paleomagnetic, and radiometric evidence from the peninsular India. The Journal of the Geological Society of India, 32:382–396.Google Scholar
Schaeffer, B. 1947. Notes on the origin and function of artiodactyl tarsus. American Museum Novitates, 1356:1–24.Google Scholar
Szalay, F. S. 1977. Phylogenetic relationships and a classification of the eutherian Mammalia, p. 315–375. In Hecht, M. K., Goody, P. C., and Hecht, B. H. (eds.), Major patterns in Vertebrate Evolution. NATO Advanced Study Institute Series, Series A: Life Sciences. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Szalay, F. S. 1982. A new appraisal of marsupial phylogeny and classification, p. 621–640. In Archer, M. (ed.), Carnivorous Marsupials. Royal Zoological Society, New South Wales.Google Scholar
Szalay, F. S. 1984. Arboreality: is it homologous in metatherian and eutherian mammals?, p. 215–258. In Hecht, M. K., Wallace, B., and Prance, G. T. (eds.), Evolutionary Biology, Volume 18. Plenum Publishing Corporation, New York.Google Scholar
Szalay, F. S. 1985. Rodent and lagomorph adaptations, origins, and relationships: some postcranial attributes analysed, p. 83–157. In Luckett, W. P. and Hartenberger, J. L. (eds.), Evolutionary Relationships Among Rodents, a Multidisciplinary Analysis. NATO Advanced Study Institute Series, Series A: Life Sciences Volume 92, Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szalay, F. S., and Decker, R. L. 1974. Origins, evolution, and function of the tarsus in the Late Cretaceous eutherians and Paleocene primates, p. 223–259. In Jenkins, F. A. (ed.), Primate Locomotion. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Szalay, F. S., and Drawhorn, G. 1980. Evolution and diversification of Archonta in an arboreal milieu, p. 133–169. In Luckett, W. P., Comparative Biology and Evolutionary Relationships of Tree Shrews. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Szalay, F. S., Tattersall, I., and Decker, R. L. 1975. Phylogenetic relationships of Plesiadapis, postcranial evidence, p. 136–166. In Szalay, F. S. (ed.), Approaches to Primate Paleobiology. Contributions to Primatology, Volume 5, Karger, Basel.Google Scholar
Venkatesan, T. R., Pande, K., and Gopalan, K. 1986. 40Ar/39Ar dating of Deccan basalts. The Journal of the Geological Society of India, 27:102–109.Google Scholar
Vianey-Liaud, M., Jain, S. L., and Sahni, A. 1987. Dinosaur egg shells (Saurischia) from the Late Cretaceous intertrappean and Lameta formations (Deccan, India). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 7:408–424.Google Scholar
Wood, A. E. 1962. The early Tertiary rodents of the family Paramyidae. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 52:1–261.Google Scholar