Tarsal morphology of ischyromyid rodents from the middle Eocene of China gives an insight into the group’s diversity in Central Asia

Abstract Ischyromyids are a group of large rodents with the earliest fossil record known from the late Paleocene (Clarkforkian) of North America; they are considered the earliest fossil representatives of Rodentia of modern aspect. Ischyromyids dominated early Paleogene small-mammal assemblages of N...

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Autores principales:	Łucja Fostowicz-Frelik, Sergi López-Torres, Qian Li
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/29684ef37ec340a9a477308b60359512
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:29684ef37ec340a9a477308b603595122021-12-02T15:56:49ZTarsal morphology of ischyromyid rodents from the middle Eocene of China gives an insight into the group’s diversity in Central Asia10.1038/s41598-021-90796-12045-2322https://doaj.org/article/29684ef37ec340a9a477308b603595122021-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-90796-1https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Ischyromyids are a group of large rodents with the earliest fossil record known from the late Paleocene (Clarkforkian) of North America; they are considered the earliest fossil representatives of Rodentia of modern aspect. Ischyromyids dominated early Paleogene small-mammal assemblages of North America and in the latest Paleocene migrated to western Europe and to Asia; in the latter they survived only to the beginning of the late Eocene, but were never abundant. Here we describe for the first time the calcanei of ischyromyids from the early middle Eocene of the Erlian Basin in Nei Mongol, northern China. These calcanei document the existence of three species. The morphology of the studied tarsal bones overall suggests ambulatory locomotion for these animals (‘slow cursors’), similar to that of the coypu and porcupines, but one form shows more marked cursorial capabilities. These differences show that Chinese ischyromyids, although rare, had attained greater taxonomic diversity by the middle Eocene in Nei Mongol than estimated from dental remains. We also address the question of the morphological and ecological divergence of these ischyromyids in relation to their North American counterparts, as well as the issue of a direct dispersal route from North America to Asia in the early Eocene.Łucja Fostowicz-FrelikSergi López-TorresQian LiNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Łucja Fostowicz-Frelik Sergi López-Torres Qian Li Tarsal morphology of ischyromyid rodents from the middle Eocene of China gives an insight into the group’s diversity in Central Asia
description	Abstract Ischyromyids are a group of large rodents with the earliest fossil record known from the late Paleocene (Clarkforkian) of North America; they are considered the earliest fossil representatives of Rodentia of modern aspect. Ischyromyids dominated early Paleogene small-mammal assemblages of North America and in the latest Paleocene migrated to western Europe and to Asia; in the latter they survived only to the beginning of the late Eocene, but were never abundant. Here we describe for the first time the calcanei of ischyromyids from the early middle Eocene of the Erlian Basin in Nei Mongol, northern China. These calcanei document the existence of three species. The morphology of the studied tarsal bones overall suggests ambulatory locomotion for these animals (‘slow cursors’), similar to that of the coypu and porcupines, but one form shows more marked cursorial capabilities. These differences show that Chinese ischyromyids, although rare, had attained greater taxonomic diversity by the middle Eocene in Nei Mongol than estimated from dental remains. We also address the question of the morphological and ecological divergence of these ischyromyids in relation to their North American counterparts, as well as the issue of a direct dispersal route from North America to Asia in the early Eocene.
format	article
author	Łucja Fostowicz-Frelik Sergi López-Torres Qian Li
author_facet	Łucja Fostowicz-Frelik Sergi López-Torres Qian Li
author_sort	Łucja Fostowicz-Frelik
title	Tarsal morphology of ischyromyid rodents from the middle Eocene of China gives an insight into the group’s diversity in Central Asia
title_short	Tarsal morphology of ischyromyid rodents from the middle Eocene of China gives an insight into the group’s diversity in Central Asia
title_full	Tarsal morphology of ischyromyid rodents from the middle Eocene of China gives an insight into the group’s diversity in Central Asia
title_fullStr	Tarsal morphology of ischyromyid rodents from the middle Eocene of China gives an insight into the group’s diversity in Central Asia
title_full_unstemmed	Tarsal morphology of ischyromyid rodents from the middle Eocene of China gives an insight into the group’s diversity in Central Asia
title_sort	tarsal morphology of ischyromyid rodents from the middle eocene of china gives an insight into the group’s diversity in central asia
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/29684ef37ec340a9a477308b60359512
work_keys_str_mv	AT łucjafostowiczfrelik tarsalmorphologyofischyromyidrodentsfromthemiddleeoceneofchinagivesaninsightintothegroupsdiversityincentralasia AT sergilopeztorres tarsalmorphologyofischyromyidrodentsfromthemiddleeoceneofchinagivesaninsightintothegroupsdiversityincentralasia AT qianli tarsalmorphologyofischyromyidrodentsfromthemiddleeoceneofchinagivesaninsightintothegroupsdiversityincentralasia
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Tarsal morphology of ischyromyid rodents from the middle Eocene of China gives an insight into the group’s diversity in Central Asia

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