期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1991
卷号：88
期号：21
页码：9734-9737
DOI：10.1073/pnas.88.21.9734
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Recent expeditions to the Fayum Depression, Egypt, have made possible the discovery of mandibles and a maxilla of a new genus and species of late Eocene elephant-shrew as well as initial evidence of the upper dentition of the early Oligocene taxon Metoldobotes. These fossils demonstrate that macroscelideans underwent a significant radiation in the Early Tertiary of Africa. Two new subfamilies are recognized and described. These Tertiary macroscelideans are the most primitive elephant-shrews known and indicate that previous hypotheses of a close phylogenetic relationship between macroscelideans and either lagomorphs, erinaceotans, or tree-shrews are unlikely. Rather, the dental anatomy of the Fayum macroscelideans provides evidence for a derivation of the order from within the Condylarthra.
