EARLIEST KNOWN CARNIVORAN AUDITORY BULLA AND SUPPORT FOR A RECENT ORIGIN OF CROWN-GROUP CARNIVORA (EUTHERIA, MAMMALIA) |
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| Authors: | P DAVID POLLY GINA D WESLEY-HUNT† RONALD E HEINRICH‡ GRAHAM DAVIS§ PETER HOUDE¶ |
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| Institution: | School of Biological Sciences;, and Dental Biophysics Group, Queen Mary, University of London, London E1 4NS, UK;e-mails:;; Department of Palaeozoology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, S 104 05 Stockholm, Sweden;e-mail:; Division of Biological Sciences, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045-7534, USA;e-mail:; Department of Biology MSC 3AF, New Mexico State University, Box 30001, Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001, USA;e-mail: |
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| Abstract: | Abstract: An ossified auditory bulla of a basal carnivoran is described for the first time. Although broken, the bulla of Viverravus acutus (Viverravidae, Carnivora) appears to have enclosed the middle ear and to have been composed exclusively of an ectotympanic bone. The structure of the bulla and other basicranial features support the hypothesis that viverravids lie phylogenetically outside crown-group Carnivora and that the last common ancestor of living carnivorans may have existed as recently as 42 million years ago, not 60–70 million years ago as suggested by some authors. |
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| Keywords: | Carnivora phylogeny auditory bulla Viverravus Eocene rates of evolution cytochrome b |
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