Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 106, Issue 26, Pages 10717-10721Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0900251106
Keywords
Africa-Morocco; Afrotheria; Paenungulata; Placentalia; Proboscidea
Categories
Funding
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique [5143]
- MNHN (Bonus Qualite Recherche)
- Collaboration Agreement with the Ministere de l'Energie et des Mines
- Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP) of Morocco
- Universities Cadi Ayyad (Marrakech)
- Chouaib Doukkali (El Jadida)
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Elephants are the only living representatives of the Proboscidea, a formerly diverse mammalian order whose history began with the 55-million years (mys) old Phosphatherium. Reported here is the discovery from the early late Paleocene of Morocco, ca. 60 mys, of the oldest and most primitive elephant relative, Eritherium azzouzorum n.g., n.sp., which is one of the earliest known representatives of modern placental orders. This well supported stem proboscidean is extraordinarily primitive and condylarth-like. It provides the first dental evidence of a resemblance between the proboscideans and African ungulates (paenungulates) on the one hand and the louisinines and early macroscelideans on the other. Eritherium illustrates the origin of the elephant order at a previously unknown primitive stage among paenungulates and ungulates. The primitive morphology of Eritherium suggests a recent and rapid paenungulate radiation after the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, probably favoured by early endemic African paleoeco-systems. At a broader scale, Eritherium provides a new old calibration point of the placental tree and supports an explosive placental radiation. The Ouled Abdoun basin, which yields the oldest known African placentals, is a key locality for elucidating phylogeny and early evolution of paenungulates and other related endemic African lineages.
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