Australidelphia

Australidelphia
Temporal range: 61.6–0 Ma Early Paleocene to present
A swamp wallaby
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Superorder: Australidelphia
Szalay 1982
Orders

Australidelphia is a superorder of marsupials encompassing about three-quarters of all living marsupial species, including all those native to Australasia and one South American species, the monito del monte. Australidelphia's lineage emerged in South America, with genetic evidence (retrotransposon insertion sites) indicating that the South American monito del monte is sister to all other members of the superorder, unlike other American marsupials, which belong to the Ameridelphia.

Within this superorder, the Australian members form a distinct group (clade) named Eomarsupialia, though their internal relationships (branching order) have yet to be determined. Studies suggest that the Australidelphia originated in South America alongside other major marsupial groups. The Eomarsupialia likely dispersed to Australia via Antarctica in a single event after their divergence from their sister group, the Microbiotheria.

Phylogeny

The following cladogram is a phylogeny of Australidelphia based on the work of May-Collado, Kilpatrick & Agnarsson 2015, with extinct clades from Black et al. 2012.

Australidelphia

Taxonomy

The orders and families within this group are listed below:

References

  1. ↑ "PBDB". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2021-07-13.
  2. ↑ Churchill, Timothy James; Archer, Michael; Hand, Suzanne J.; Beck, Robin M. D. (2026-06-14). "A new metatherian order from Australia (Keeunamorphia, Metatheria), and new Early Miocene species from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland". Journal of Paleontology: 1–30. doi:10.1017/jpa.2026.10238. ISSN 0022-3360.
  3. 1 2 3 Beck, R. M. D.; Travouillon, K. J.; Aplin, K. P.; Godthelp, H.; Archer, M. (2014). "The Osteology and Systematics of the Enigmatic Australian Oligo-Miocene Metatherian Yalkaparidon (Yalkaparidontidae; Yalkaparidontia; ?Australidelphia; Marsupialia)". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 21 (2): 127–172. doi:10.1007/s10914-013-9236-3. S2CID 18490996.
  4. ↑ Schiewe, Jessie (2010-07-28). "Australia's marsupials originated in what is now South America, study says". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 1 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-01.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Nilsson, M. A.; Churakov, G.; Sommer, M.; Van Tran, N.; Zemann, A.; Brosius, J.; Schmitz, J. (2010-07-27). Penny, David (ed.). "Tracking Marsupial Evolution Using Archaic Genomic Retroposon Insertions". PLOS Biology. 8 (7) e1000436. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000436. PMC 2910653. PMID 20668664.
  6. ↑ May-Collado; et al. (2015). "Mammals from 'down under': a multi-gene species-level phylogeny of marsupial mammals (Mammalia, Metatheria)". PeerJ. 3 e805. doi:10.7717/peerj.805. PMC 4349131. PMID 25755933.
  7. ↑ Black; et al. (2012). "The Rise of Australian Marsupials: A Synopsis of Biostratigraphic, Phylogenetic, Palaeoecologic and Palaeobiogeographic Understanding". Earth and Life. Springer Netherlands. pp. 983–1078. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-3428-1_35. ISBN 978-90-481-3427-4.