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Research Article

Miocene mammal reveals a Mesozoic ghost lineage on insular New Zealand, southwest Pacific

Trevor H. Worthy, Alan J. D. Tennyson, Michael Archer, Anne M. Musser, Suzanne J. Hand, Craig Jones, Barry J. Douglas, James A. McNamara, and Robin M. D. Beck
PNAS December 19, 2006 103 (51) 19419-19423; first published December 11, 2006; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0605684103
Trevor H. Worthy
*School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Darling Building DP 418, Adelaide University, North Terrace, Adelaide 5005, South Australia, Australia;
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  • For correspondence: trevor.worthy@adelaide.edu.au
Alan J. D. Tennyson
‡Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, P.O. Box 467, Wellington 6015, New Zealand;
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Michael Archer
§School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, New South Wales 2052, Australia;
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Anne M. Musser
¶Australian Museum, 6-8 College Street, Sydney, New South Wales 2010, Australia;
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Suzanne J. Hand
§School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, New South Wales 2052, Australia;
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Craig Jones
‖Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, P.O. Box 30368, Lower Hutt 5040, New Zealand;
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Barry J. Douglas
**Douglas Geological Consultants, 14 Jubilee Street, Dunedin 9011, New Zealand; and
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James A. McNamara
††South Australian Museum, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia
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Robin M. D. Beck
§School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, New South Wales 2052, Australia;
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  1. Edited by James P. Kennett, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, and approved October 11, 2006 (received for review July 8, 2006)

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Abstract

New Zealand (NZ) has long been upheld as the archetypical example of a land where the biota evolved without nonvolant terrestrial mammals. Their absence before human arrival is mysterious, because NZ was still attached to East Antarctica in the Early Cretaceous when a variety of terrestrial mammals occupied the adjacent Australian portion of Gondwana. Here we report discovery of a nonvolant mammal from Miocene (19–16 Ma) sediments of the Manuherikia Group near St Bathans (SB) in Central Otago, South Island, NZ. A partial relatively plesiomorphic femur and two autapomorphically specialized partial mandibles represent at least one mouse-sized mammal of unknown relationships. The material implies the existence of one or more ghost lineages, at least one of which (based on the relatively plesiomorphic partial femur) spanned the Middle Miocene to at least the Early Cretaceous, probably before the time of divergence of marsupials and placentals >125 Ma. Its presence in NZ in the Middle Miocene and apparent absence from Australia and other adjacent landmasses at this time appear to reflect a Gondwanan vicariant event and imply persistence of emergent land during the Oligocene marine transgression of NZ. Nonvolant terrestrial mammals disappeared from NZ some time since the Middle Miocene, possibly because of late Neogene climatic cooling.

  • Gondwana
  • Miocene
  • nontherian mammal
  • vicariant event

Footnotes

  • ↵†To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: trevor.worthy{at}adelaide.edu.au
  • Author contributions: T.H.W., A.J.D.T., C.J., B.J.D., and J.A.M. designed research; T.H.W., A.J.D.T., C.J., B.J.D., and J.A.M. performed research; T.H.W., M.A., A.M.M., S.J.H., and R.M.D.B. analyzed data; and T.H.W., M.A., A.M.M., S.J.H., and R.M.D.B. wrote the paper.

  • This article is a PNAS direct submission.

  • This article contains supporting information (SI) online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0605684103/DC1.

  • Abbreviations

    NZ,
    New Zealand;
    SB,
    St Bathans.
    • Received July 8, 2006.
    • © 2006 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA

    Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

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    Miocene mammal reveals a Mesozoic ghost lineage on insular New Zealand, southwest Pacific
    Trevor H. Worthy, Alan J. D. Tennyson, Michael Archer, Anne M. Musser, Suzanne J. Hand, Craig Jones, Barry J. Douglas, James A. McNamara, Robin M. D. Beck
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Dec 2006, 103 (51) 19419-19423; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0605684103

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    Miocene mammal reveals a Mesozoic ghost lineage on insular New Zealand, southwest Pacific
    Trevor H. Worthy, Alan J. D. Tennyson, Michael Archer, Anne M. Musser, Suzanne J. Hand, Craig Jones, Barry J. Douglas, James A. McNamara, Robin M. D. Beck
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Dec 2006, 103 (51) 19419-19423; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0605684103
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