Dissertation Research: The Phylogeny of the Creodonta and a Study of their Carnivorous Adaptations

在新生代的前半期，Creodonta目的成员是北美、欧亚大陆和非洲主要的陆地食肉动物。齿形目动物与后来的食肉目和有袋目动物一样，利用了许多相同的适应区，并且表现出许多相同的形态。尽管它们分布广泛，具有重要的生态意义，但其系统发育和主要的运动和摄食适应在很大程度上仍未得到研究。本研究将是首次在系统发育系统学的背景下对齿石的系统发育和进化进行综合评价。它将讨论credodon的单系问题，它们与食肉目的关系，它们在Eutheria门中的系统发育位置，以及credodonta门中几个有问题的分类群的位置。此外，这种系统发育信息将用于研究与其他食肉哺乳动物相似的形态的起源。齿齿兽有三种相对独立的辐射。这些，连同肉食性和肉食性有袋动物的辐射，提供了一个极好的机会来观察第三纪陆地生态系统的趋同进化和群落结构现象。数据将来自对博物馆标本的原始分析和已发表的文献。在系统发育分析中，将使用牙齿、颅骨、后颅骨和推断的解剖学特征。

For the first half of the Cenozoic, members of the order Creodonta were the predominant terrestrial carnivores in North America, Eurasia, and Africa. Creodonts exploited many of the same adaptive zones as later members of the Carnivora and Marsupialia, and they exhibit many of the same morphologies. Although they had a wide distribution and great ecologic importance, the phylogeny and major locomotory and feeding adaptations of creodonts remain largely unstudied. This study will be the first comprehensive assessment of creodont phylogeny and evolution in the context of phylogenetic systematics. It will address the questions of creodont monophyly, their relationship to the Carnivora, their phylogenetic position within Eutheria, and the position of several problematic taxa within Creodonta. Furthermore, this phylogenetic information will be used to examine the origin of morphologies convergent with those seen in other carnivorous mammals. Creodonts had three relatively separate radiations. These, along with the radiations of Carnivora and carnivorous marsupials, provide an excellent chance to look at the phenomena of convergent evolution and community structure in terrestrial ecosystems of the Tertiary. Data will come from original analysis of museum specimens and from the published literature. In the phylogenetic analysis dental, cranial, postcranial, and inferred anatomical characters will be used.