The oldest modern therian mammal from Europe and its bearing on stem marsupial paleobiogeography

Abstract

We report the discovery of mammalian tribosphenic teeth from the basal Cenomanian of southwestern France that we refer to a new primitive marsupial-like form identified as a basal taxon of Marsupialiformes, a new clade recognized here to include the crown group Marsupialia and primitive stem lineages more closely related to Marsupialia than to Deltatheroida. Arcantiodelphys marchandi gen et sp nov. shares several significant marsupial-like features ( s.l. ) with marsupialiform taxa known from the North American Mid-Cretaceous. Among marsupialiforms, it shows a closer resemblance to Dakotadens . This resemblance, which is plesiomorphic within “tribotherians,” makes Arcantiodelphys one of the most archaic known Marsupialiformes. Moreover, Arcantiodelphys is characterized by an original and precocious crushing specialization. Both the plesiomorphic and autapomorphic characteristics of Arcantiodelphys among Marsupialiformes might be explained by an Eastern origin from Asian stem metatherians, with some in situ European evolution. In addition, the presence of a mammal with North American affinities in western Europe during the early Late Cretaceous provides further evidence of a large Euramerican biogeographical province at this age or slightly before. Concerning the paleobiogeographical history of the first stem marsupialiforms during the Albian–Cenomanian interval, 2 possible dispersal routes from an Asian metatherian ancestry can be proposed: Asia to Europe via North America and Asia to North America via Europe. The main significance of the Archingeay-Les Nouillers mammal discovery is that it indicates that the beginning of the stem marsupialiforms history involved not only North America but also Europe, and that this early history in Europe remains virtually unknown.

Why are There Fewer Marsupials than Placentals? On the Relevance of Geography and Physiology to Evolutionary Patterns of Mammalian Diversity and Disparity

“…It was previously thought that the clade of living Marsupialia originated in the Cretaceous (Novacek 1992), and that some modern lineages (e.g., Didelphidae) represented "living fossils" (Simpson 1980). However, new fossils and comprehensive phylogenetic analyses of the relevant fossil forms (Rougier et al 1998;Luo et al 2003;Sánchez-Villagra et al 2007;H o r o v i t ze ta l .2009; Vullo et al 2009; but see Beck 2012) have shown that the Cretaceous forms are stemmetatherians and that crown marsupials are exclusively from the Cenozoic. In other words, stem metatherians have a long history within the Mesozoic.…”

Cranial Anatomy of the Earliest Marsupials and the Origin of Opossums

“…Fossil relatives of marsupials are common in Cretaceous through Miocene localities in both North America and Eurasia [1], [2]. Metatheria includes the common ancestor of all extant marsupials plus all extinct mammals that are more closely related to living marsupials than to extant placentals [3].…”

The historical biogeography of Mammalia

“…Cretaceous marsupial fossils are also known from Europe [172,173] and North America [174 -178]. The consensus is that metatherians originated in Asia, and subsequently dispersed to North America and Europe [173].…”