title: New partial skeletons of Palaeocene Nyctitheriidae and evaluation of proposed euarchontan affinities.
abstract: Small-bodied, insectivorous Nyctitheriidae are known in the Palaeogene fossil record almost exclusively from teeth and fragmentary jaws and have been referred to Eulipotyphla (shrews, moles and hedgehogs) based on dental similarities. By contrast, isolated postcrania attributed to the group suggest arboreality and a relationship to Euarchonta (primates, treeshrews and colugos). Cretaceous-Palaeocene adapisoriculid insectivores have also been proposed as early euarchontans based on postcranial similarities. We describe the first known dentally associated nyctitheriid auditory regions and postcrania, and use them to test the proposed relationship to Euarchonta with cladistic analyses of 415 dental, cranial and postcranial characteristics scored for 92 fossil and extant mammalian taxa. Although nyctitheriid postcrania share similarities with euarchontans likely related to arboreality, results of cladistic analyses suggest that nyctitheriids are closely related to Eulipotyphla. Adapisoriculidae is found to be outside of crown Placentalia. These results suggest that similarities in postcranial morphology among nyctitheriids, adapisoriculids and euarchontans represent separate instances of convergence or primitive retention of climbing capabilities.
authors.affiliation: Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA Department of Geological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA clmanz@ufl.edu.
authors.forename: Carly L
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6635-3720
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Manz
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, City University of New York, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY 11210, USA New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology (NYCEP), New York, NY 10024, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen G B
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Chester
authors.affiliation: Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
authors.forename: Jonathan I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Bloch
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M1C 1A4.
authors.forename: Mary T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Silcox
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Eric J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Sargis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005580:Fossils; D008322:Mammals / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012886:Skull / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D014070:Tooth / Q000033:anatomy & histology
keywords: Adapisoriculidae; Euarchonta; Nyctitheriidae; Placentalia; arboreality