Cranial anatomy in tenrecid insectivorans : character evolution across competing phylogenies

Title Variants

Alternative: Tenrecid cranial anatomy

Related Titles

Series: American Museum novitates, no. 3352

By

Asher, Robert J.

Type

Book

Material

Published material

Publication info

New York, NY American Museum of Natural History c2001

Notes

Caption title.

"December 31, 2001."

Soft-tissue characters from the cranial vasculature and anterior nasal fossa are described and figured for several tenrecs and other insectivoran-grade mammals. A number of variations in blood supply and anterior nasal anatomy exist among observed specimens, including the involution of certain branches of the stapedial artery, blood supply to the jaw, relation of the external carotid to pharyngeal musculature, connections of the vomeronasal duct and paraseptal cartilage, presence of a papillary cartilage, and others. When the observed anatomy is distilled into 20 discrete anatomical characters and optimized onto recent insectivoran phylogenetic trees, these soft-tissue characters are more consistent with a reconstruction based on osteological and dental characters than with one based on molecular characters. Nevertheless, all recently proposed phylogenies require homoplasy from this dataset, and potential synapomorphies for both a monophyletic Lipotyphla and endemic African clade can be optimized onto recent phylogenetic proposals.

Subjects

Africa , Anatomy , Anatomy, Comparative , Evolution , Insectivores (Mammals) , Mammals , Phylogeny , Skull , Tenrecs

Call Number

QL1 .A436 no.3352 2001

Language

English

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1206/0003-0082(2001)352<0001:CAITIC>2.0.CO;2
OCLC: 48919198