Craniofacial Morphology of Vintana Sertichi (Mammalia, Gondwanatheria) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar

• Main Authors: Krause, David W., Wible, John R., Hoffmann, Simone, Groenke, Joseph R., O’Connor, Patrick M., Holloway, Waymon L., Rossie, James B.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Taylor & Francis 2014
• Subjects: Biological Sciences; Ecology; FOS Biological sciences; Earth and Environmental Sciences; Evolutionary Biology; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1265148.v1; https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Craniofacial_Morphology_of_i_Vintana_Sertichi_i_Mammalia_Gondwanatheria_from_the_Late_Cretaceous_of_Madagascar/1265148/1

ABSTRACTThe Gondwanatheria are an enigmatic clade of Cretaceous and Paleogene mammals known from South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, and the Antarctic Peninsula. The eight valid species—each belonging to a monotypic genus and the first of which was described only 30 years ago—are represented almost exclusively by isolated teeth, in addition to fragmentary dentaries attributed to Sudamerica , Gondwanatherium , Ferugliotherium , and an unnamed taxon from Tanzania. No cranial (skull exclusive of lower jaw) or postcranial material has heretofore been assigned to the Gondwanatheria, a severe limitation that has precluded a comprehensive assessment of phylogenetic affinities. Here we describe, in detail, the first cranial specimen of a gondwanatherian mammal. This material consists of a complete and well-preserved cranium of the sudamericid Vintana sertichi , recovered from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Maevarano Formation in the Mahajanga Basin of northwestern Madagascar. Salient features of the cranium include elongate, scimitar-like jugal flanges, huge orbits, strong klinorhynchy, and a vaulted nuchal region. Micro-computed tomography greatly facilitated the delineation of sutures and the description of internal morphology. The cranial features of Vintana are compared with those of a broad range of synapsids, with particular concentration on other Mesozoic mammaliaforms. The cranium of Vintana exhibits a mosaic of extremely primitive and extremely derived features. It is the second largest known for a Mesozoic mammaliaform, superseded only by that of the eutriconodontan Repenomamus giganticus from the Early Cretaceous of China. Vintana is the largest known Late Cretaceous mammaliaform; it is also the largest known Mesozoic mammaliaform from Gondwana.SUPPLEMENTAL DATA—Supplemental materials are available for this article for free at www.tandfonline.com/UJVP