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Fruitafossor windscheffeliFossil, Late Jurassic Mammal
Dr. Zhe-Xi Luo - University of Chicago
John R. Wible
Fruitafossor windscheffeli
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skull
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Los Angeles County Museum (LACM 150948) - holotype

Image processing: Dr. Jessie Maisano
Publication Date: 02 Jan 2006

ITIS TNS Google MSN

Abstract from Luo, Z.-X. and Wible, J. R., 2005. A Late Jurassic digging mammal and early mammalian diversification. Science 308:103-107.

A fossil mammal from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation, Colorado, has highly specialized teeth similar to those of xenarthran and tubulidentate placental mammals and different from the generalized insectivorous or omnivorous dentitions of other Jurassic mammals. It has many forelimb features specialized for digging, and its lumbar vertebrae show xenarthrous articulations. Parsimony analysis suggests that this fossil represents a separate basal mammalian lineage with some dental and vertebral convergences to those of modern xenarthran placentals, and reveals a previously unknown ecomorph of early mammals.

About the Species

This specimen (LACM 150948), the holotype, is of an individual represented by lower jaws, an incomplete cranium, and approximately 40% of the postcranial skeleton. It was collected from the Kimmeridgian age (150 MYA) mudstones of the Morrison Formation, Fruita Paleontology Area, Fruita, Colorado. The specimen was made available to The University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility for scanning by Drs. Zhe-Xi Luo and John Wible of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Dr. Timothy Rowe of The University of Texas at Austin. Funding for image processing was provided by a National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative grant to Dr. Timothy Rowe of The University of Texas at Austin.

About this Specimen

The specimen was scanned by Matthew Colbert on 3 September 2005 along the coronal axis for a total of 975 slices. Each slice is 0.060 mm thick, with an interslice spacing of 0.060 mm and a field of reconstruction of 50 mm.

About the
Scan

Literature

Gaudin, T. J., and A. A. Biewener. 1992. The functional morphology of xenarthrous vertebrae in the armadillo Dasypus novemcinctus (Mammalia, Xenarthra). Journal of Morphology 214:63-81.

Hildebrand, M. 1985. Digging of quadrupeds, pp. 89-109. In M. Hildebrand, D. M. Bramble, K. F. Liem, and D. B. Wake (eds.), Functional Vertebrate Morphology. Belknap, Cambridge.

Hu, Y.-M., Wang, Y.-Q., Luo, Z.-X., and C.-K. Li. 1997. A new symmetrodont mammal from China and its implications for mammalian evolution. Nature 390:137-142.

Hu, Y., Wang, Y., Li, Ch., and Z.-X. Luo. 1998. Morphology of dentition and forelimb of Zhangheotherium. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 36:102–125.

Jenkins, F. A. Jr., and F. R. Parrington. 1976. Postcranial skeletons of Triassic mammals Eozostrodon, Megazostrodon and Erythrotherium. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B 273:387-&.

Ji, Q., Luo, Z.-X. and S.-A. Ji. 1999. A Chinese triconodont mammal and mosaic evolution of the mammalian skeleton. Nature 398:326-330.

Ji, Q., Luo, Z.-X., Yuan, C.-X., Wible, J. R., Zhang, J.-P., and J. A. Georgi. 2002. The earliest known eutherian mammal. Nature 416:816-822.

Kielan-Jaworowska, Z., and P. P. Gambaryan. 1994. Postcranial anatomy and habits of Asian multituberulcate mammals. Fossils Strata 36:1-92.

Kielan-Jaworowska, Z., Cifelli, R. L., and Z.-X. Luo. 2004. Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs: Origins, Evolution and Structure. Columbia University Press, New York.

Kumar, S., and S. B. Hedges. 1998. A molecular timescale for vertebrate evolution. Nature 392:917-920.

Krause, D. W., and F. A. Jenkins. 1983. The postcranial skeleton of North American multituberculates. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 150:199-246.

Luo, Z.-X., Crompton, A. W., and A.-L. Sun. 2001. A new mammaliaform from the Early Jurassic and evolution of mammalian characteristics. Science 292:1535-1540.

Luo, Z.-X., Kielan-Jaworowska, Z., and R. L. Cifelli. 2002. In quest for a phylogeny of Mesozoic mammals. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 47:1-78.

Luo, Z.-X., Ji, Q., Wible, J. R., and C.-X. Yuan. 2003. An Early Cretaceous tribosphenic mammal and metatherian evolution. Science 302:1934-1940.

Martin, T., and B. Krebs (Eds.). 2000. Guimarota: A Jurassic Ecosystem. Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, Munich.

McKenna, M. C., and S. K. Bell. 1997. Classification of Mammals above the Species Level. Columbia University Press, New York.

McLeod, N., and K. D. Rose. 1993. Inferring locomotor behavior in Paleogene mammals via eigenshape analysis. American Journal of Science 293:300-355.

Murphy, W. J. et al. 2001. Resolution of the early placental mammal radiation using bayesian phylogenetics. Science 294:2348-2351.

Novacek, M. J., Rougier, G. W., Wible, J. R., McKenna, M. C., Dashzeveg, D., and I. Horovitz. 1997. Epipubic bones in eutherian mammals from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Nature 389:483-486.

Nowak, R. M., and J. L. Paradiso. 1983. Walker's Mammals of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 4th edition.

Prothero, D. R. 1981. New Jurassic mammals from Como Bluff, Wyoming, and the interrelationships of non-tribosphenic Theria. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 167:281-325.

Rose, K. D. 2000. Burrowing adaptations in vertebrates, pp. 220-226. In R. Singer (ed.), Encyclopedia of Paleontology, Volume 1. Fitzroy Dearborn, Chicago and London.

Rougier, G. W., Wible, J. R., and M. J. Novacek. 1998. Implications of Deltatheridium specimens for early marsupial history. Nature 396:459-463.

Rougier, G. W., Ji, Q., and M. Novacek. 2003. A new symmetrodont mammal with fur impressions from the Mesozoic of China. Acta Geologica Sinica 77:7–14.

Rowe, T. B. 1988. Definition, diagnosis, and origin of Mammalia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 8:241-264.

Simpson, G. G. 1929. American Mesozoic Mammalia. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University 3:1-171.

Szalay, F. S. 1994. Evolutionary History of the Marsupials and an Analysis of Osteological Characters. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Weil, A. 2002. Mammalian evolution: upwards and onwards. Nature 416:798-799.

Literature
& Links
semi-transparent matrix

Click on the thumbnail to the left for a false-color roll animation (1.9 mb) of the specimen with the matrix rendered semi-transparent.

semi-transparent matrix

Click on the thumbnail to the left for an unreduced version of the front page image.

Additional
Imagery

To cite this page: Dr. Zhe-Xi Luo, John R. Wible, 2006, "Fruitafossor windscheffeli" (On-line), Digital Morphology. Accessed March 18, 2024 at http://digimorph.org/specimens/Fruitafossor_windscheffeli/.

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