Paleobiology and adaptations of paleogene metatherians

Abstract

Diversity, dietary, and body mass analyses suggest that the early Eocene represents the major radiation event in South America metatherian evolutionary history. During this period, representatives of all orders typical of the Paleogene reached their greatest diversity (i.e., “basal ameridelphians”; Polydolopimorphia Polydolopiformes, and Bonapartheriiformes Bonapartherioidea); frugivory was the dominant trophic niche. By the middle late Eocene occurs a functional and taxonomic turnover. Among the Polydolopimorphia, frugivore types declined and were replaced by larger-sized frugivores/folivores (Polydolopiformes) and smaller-sized granivores (Bonapartheriiformes). The Sparassodonta showed a diversity increase and occupied the large-sized hypercarnivore niches. The Eocene–Oligocene boundary constitutes another extinction and turnover event marked by the disappearance of “basal ameridelphians”, the Polydolopiformes and Bonapartheriiformes Bonapartherioidea. Lineages that survive into the Deseadan are the Sparassodonta, Paucituberculata, Microbiotheria, and Bonapartheriiformes Argyrolagoidea. Dominant trophic types were those of carnivores and granivores. Environmental factors probably modeled the Paleogene metatherian faunal dynamics in South America. Mean annual temperatures (MAT) and precipitations seem the main factors modeling the taxonomic and trophic diversity, respectively. The adaptive radiation of the early Eocene seems associated with the maximum thermal event of the late Paleocene-early Eocene. The turnover event of the late Eocene seems associated with a sharp drop in the rainfall regime. The extinction and turnover event of the Eocene–Oligocene boundary also seem associated with a strong drop in ambient temperatures. The diversity in evolution of Paleogene metatherians shows a pattern similar to that of living marsupials at the latitudinal level. For a given mean temperature, the number of species in extinct associations is very close to that of the living ones.