Evolutionary history of the marsupials and an analysis of osteological characters
By: Frederick S. Szalay.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Cambridge [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 481
Subjects: Marsupials -- Phylogeny.; Marsupials -- Morphology.; Marsupials -- Classification.; Marsupials, Fossil.
Description: Evolutionary History of the Marsupials and an Analysis of Osteological Characters has a dual aim. Its overriding concern is the critical assessment of the extant and fossil morphological evidence against which phylogenetic hypotheses of marsupial phylogeny and taxa should be tested.

In addition to a reexamination of published character complexes and the proposed taxa, the author presents a detailed analysis of new fossils and osteological information previously not considered in phylogenetic studies of marsupials. All the higher metatherians are diagnosed and discussed in detail in the book, and a final chapter presents an analysis of the evolution and paleobiogeography of the marsupials.

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In addition to the primary aim of the book, which is to arrive at an interim, but most plausible phylogeny and biogeography of the marsupials, the book also discusses the methods of phylogeny reconstruction, and the special significance of the skeleton. It is argued that the use of osteological properties, considering all the available information which these contain, are critical for plausible phylogenetics.

The author argues that phylogenetic analysis of groups requires more than cladistics, but that any phylogeny must be based on noncircular analyses of character transformations to reveal their contingent and unique attributes. The temporal data and the morphology is provided by the fossils, and there must also be a proper consideration of ancestry, in addition to sistergroup relationships.

. This book is the only single-authored, comprehensive volume on the history of marsupials which deals with both the living and extinct groups, and will interest all paleontologists and biologists concerned with mammalian evolution.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 429-453) and index.