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Authors
Goswami, AnjaliNoirault, Eve
Coombs, Ellen J
Clavel, Julien
Fabre, Anne-Claire
Halliday, Thomas JD
Churchill, Morgan
Curtis, Abigail
Watanabe, Akinobu
Simmons, Nancy B
Beatty, Brian L
Geisler, Jonathan H
Fox, David L
Felice, Ryan N
Issue date
2022-10-28Submitted date
2021-10-08
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The Cenozoic diversification of placental mammals is the archetypal adaptive radiation. Yet, discrepancies between molecular divergence estimates and the fossil record fuel ongoing debate around the timing, tempo, and drivers of this radiation. Analysis of a three-dimensional skull dataset for living and extinct placental mammals demonstrates that evolutionary rates peak early and attenuate quickly. This long-term decline in tempo is punctuated by bursts of innovation that decreased in amplitude over the past 66 million years. Social, precocial, aquatic, and herbivorous species evolve fastest, especially whales, elephants, sirenians, and extinct ungulates. Slow rates in rodents and bats indicate dissociation of taxonomic and morphological diversification. Frustratingly, highly similar ancestral shape estimates for placental mammal superorders suggest that their earliest representatives may continue to elude unequivocal identification.Citation
Anjali Goswami et al. , Attenuated evolution of mammals through the Cenozoic. Science 378, 377-383 (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abm7525Journal
ScienceType
Journal ArticleItem Description
Copyright © 2022, The Authors. This document is the author’s final accepted version of the journal article. You are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from it.NHM Repository
ISSN
0036-8075EISSN
1095-9203ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1126/science.abm7525
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