Submitted by Pedro Barros (pedro.silvabarros@ufpe.br) on 2018-07-03T22:03:30Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO Leonardo de Melo Carneiro.pdf: 4896965 bytes, checksum: 12c73b15222a3d9bac065b5b55492d90 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-03T22:03:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO Leonardo de Melo Carneiro.pdf: 4896965 bytes, checksum: 12c73b15222a3d9bac065b5b55492d90 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-06 / FACEPE / Os marsupiais sul-americanos, dentre os quais se incluem os atuais “gambás” e “cuícas”, consistiram em dos grupos de mamíferos de maior diversidade no Paleogeno sul-americano. A literatura apresenta diversos estudos que enfocam na sistemática e paleobiogeografia dos taxa sul-americanos, entretanto, poucos apresentam resultados bem suportados. Essa incerteza sistemática resultou na análise de quase todas as famílias já descritas para a linhagem dos marsupiais (excluindo as quatro ordens endêmicas do continente Australiano) com o intuito de validar as características consideradas diagnósticas para as mesmas. Os resultados mostram que os Metatheria sul-americanos originaram-se durante o Cretáceo Inicial na América do Norte. A filogenia demonstrou que as grandes linhagens de Metatheria já haviam se diversificado na América do Norte antes da chegada à América do Sul, entretanto foi neste continente que a linhagem atingiu a sua maior diversidade. A provável rota de chegada a América do Sul envolveu a região do Caribe e América Central, constituindo os arcos-de-ilha e as regressões marinhas importantes fatores ambientais para a evolução do grupo. A paleoecologia do grupo demonstrou que os Metatheria sul-americanos evoluíram para ocupar diferentes nichos tróficos durante todo o Paleogeno-Neogeno, estando sua maior diversidade relacionada ao Máximo Termal do Paleoceno-Eoceno (MTPE). A redução das temperaturas globais durante o início do Oligoceno foi provavelmente o principal evento de extinção para a maioria das linhagens no Hemisfério Sul. / The South American marsupials, which include the extant opossums, represented a diverse group in South America during the Paleogene. Most published studies focus on systematic and paleobiogeography of South American taxa, however, few present consistent results. This problematic resulted on the analysis of almost all described families of marsupials (excluding Australidelphia four endemic orders), in order to validate the characters considered as diagnostic for them. The results demonstrate that South American metatherians evolved in North America since Early Cretaceous, with almost all major lineages present in North America prior to the arrival in South America; nevertheless, the lineage reached its major diversity in the last continent. The probable dispersal rout was the Caribbean Plate, with ‘aves ridge’ and sea-level regressions during the Late Cretaceous representing important environmental events for the evolution of this group. The paleoecology demonstrated that South American taxa evolved to occupy different trophic niches during Paleogene and Neogene, with the greater diversity being recorded during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). The global cooling during the early Oligocene probably was the main environmental event for the extinction of the majority of Southern lineages.

The name Metatheria refers to the clade that contains the extant marsupials and also all extinct mammals that are more closely related to extant marsupials than to the placental mammals. Metatherians first appear in the fossil record of Asia during the Early Cretaceous, with younger records in North America (Late Cretaceous), South America (the latest Cretaceous or earliest Paleocene), and finally Australia via Antarctica (by the Eocene). The Cenozoic fossil record of metatherians in the Old World is rather poor. Except for Europe, there are only a handful of metatherian taxa known from Afro-Arabia and Asia, almost all of which are documented only by isolated teeth or partial jaws. Fieldwork at Uzunçarşı, a fossil site in central Turkey, yielded at least three different metatherian taxa, one of which (Anatoliadelphys) is exceptionally preserved and nearly complete. In this study I demonstrate that Anatoliadelphys occupies a more derived position on the metatherian tree than the well-known South American metatherians such as Pucadelphys. My functional morphological investigations indicate that Anatoliadelphys and the South American taxa Pucadelphys and Mayulestes are different from the extant didelphid marsupials of South America in their skeletal adaptations for locomotion. Anatoliadelphys was most likely terrestrial. / text

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