Abstract
SENOR AMEGHINO appears to be firmly convinced that the ancestors of a large number of groups of mammals are to be met with among the remains from the Santa Cruz and associated beds of Patagonia. Last year, in the journal quoted below, he attempted to prove the descent of the modern elephant, through Pyrotherium and certain other forms, from a primitive opossum (Proteodidelphys). Now he essays to demonstrate that the rodents have originated from another type of Patagonian “diprotodonts,” namely, the Garzoniidae, which is itself traced back to a still earlier group, the Microbiotheriidae. Apart from zoological considerations, the possibility of such phytogenies depends entirely on the age assigned to the Santa Cruz and subjacent strata. If, with Dr. Ameghino, we regard them as of early Eocene, Cretaceous, and possibly Upper Jurassic age, then, from this point of view, there is nothing impossible in such pedigrees. If, on the other hand, we accept the view of the great majority of palæontologists that these strata are of Miocene age, the very foundations of Dr. Ameghino's elaborate phylogenies are at once destroyed.
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References
F. Ameghino, "Los Diprotodontes del ordren des los Plagiaulacoideos y el Origen de los Roedores y de los Polymastodontes" (An. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires, vol. ix., pp. 81–192)
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L., R. Patagonian “Diprotodont” Mammals 1 . Nature 69, 137–138 (1903). https://doi.org/10.1038/069137b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/069137b0