Eutheriodontia morphobank picture album

Abstract

A group of researchers interested in the evolutionary history of Eutheriodontia is working on a project on the phylogenetic study of species of Therocephalia and basal Cynodontia up to basal Mammaliaformes (the latter represented by a few basal species). The online platform Morphobank is being used to gather the phylogenetically relevant information obtained from novel observations in addition to previously published data. Currently, the project consists of one matrix, 106 taxa, 257 characters, 92 specimens and 300 media, including photographs and/or illustrations. Most of the activity is, at present, concentrated on the uploading of the media that will be mainly used to illustrate the character states in the data matrix. This activity is accompanied by revised definitions of each character previously proposed for the targeted groups, and the proposal of new ones. This is also an open forum for discussion of homologies, for example the different conditions of the secondary palate, or the way to score postcanine teeth of remarkably different morphologies. Apart from contributing to the understanding of phylogenetic relationships, we anticipate providing an anatomical atlas of Eutheriodontia to the scientific community, expecting that 3D resources can be added in the near future. This is the first phase of an ambitious project that we anticipate will help with accountability and illustrative presentation of the scoring of data matrices in eutheriodonts.