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Cited by 254Evolution and Paleontology StudiesMorphological variations and asymmetryPlant Diversity and Evolution

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 86 of the 87 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Ancestral State Reconstruction of Body Size in the Caniformia (Carnivora, Mammalia): The Effects of Incorporating Data from the Fossil Record

Finarelli, John A., Flynn, John J.·2006·Systematic Biology
DOI 10.1080/10635150500541698
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Abstract

A recent molecular phylogeny of the mammalian order Carnivora implied large body size as the ancestral condition for the caniform subclade Arctoidea using the distribution of species mean body sizes among living taxa. "Extant taxa-only" approaches such as these discount character state observations for fossil members of living clades and completely ignore data from extinct lineages. To more rigorously reconstruct body sizes of ancestral forms within the Caniformia, body size and first appearance data were collected for 149 extant and 367 extinct taxa. Body sizes were reconstructed for four ancestral nodes using weighted squared-change parsimony on log-transformed body mass data. Reconstructions based on extant taxa alone favored large body sizes (on the order of 10 to 50 kg) for the last common ancestors of both the Caniformia and Arctoidea. In contrast, reconstructions incorporating fossil data support small body sizes (< 5 kg) for the ancestors of those clades. When the temporal information associated with fossil data was discarded, body size reconstructions became ambiguous, demonstrating that incorporating both character state and temporal information from fossil taxa unambiguously supports a small ancestral body size, thereby falsifying hypotheses derived from extant taxa alone. Body size reconstructions for Caniformia, Arctoidea, and Musteloidea were not sensitive to potential errors introduced by uncertainty in the position of extinct lineages relative to the molecular…

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Citations

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Research works printed but not linked: 13

  1. Baskin, 1998, Mustelidae, Pages 152
  2. Flynn, 2005, Carnivora, Pages 175
  3. Ginsburg, 1966, Les amphicyons des Phosporites du Quercy, Ann. Paléontol. (Vert.), 52, 21
  4. Gittleman, 1993, Carnivore life histories: A reanalysis in light of new models, Pages 65
  5. Hough, 1948, The auditory region in some members of the Procyonidae, Canidae and Ursidae: Its significane in the phylogeny of the Carnivora, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 92, 67
  6. Hunt, 1998, Amphicyondae, Pages 196
  7. Hunt, 1998, Ursidae, Pages 174
  8. Matthew, 1924, Third contribution to the Snake Creek Fauna, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 50, 59
  9. Van Valkenburgh, 1990, Skeletal and dental predictors of body mass in carnivores, Pages 181
  10. Viranta, 1996, European Miocene Amphicyonidae—taxonomy, systematics and ecology, Acta Zool. Fenni., 204, 1
  11. Wang, 1994, Phylogenetic sytematics of the Hesperocyoninae (Carnivora: Canidae), Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 221, 1
  12. Wang, 1999, Phylogenetic sytematics of the Borophaginae (Carnivora: Canidae), Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 243, 1
  13. Wozencraft, 1993, Order Carnivora, Pages 279

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Metadata

Authors
Finarelli, J. A., & Flynn, J. J.
Affiliations
  • Field Museum of Natural History (US)
  • American Museum of Natural History (US)
Corresponding author
Finarelli, John A.
ORCID
Flynn, John J.
Venue
Systematic Biology
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2006-04-01
Volume
55
Issue
2
Pages
301-313
ISSN
  • 1063-5157 (ISSN-L)
  • 1076-836X
DOI
10.1080/10635150500541698
OpenAlex
W2104579758
Cited by
254
References
87
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 15
FWCI
7.23
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Systematic Biology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Morphological variations and asymmetry
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Plant Diversity and Evolution
Keywords
ancestral state reconstruction, body size, Caniformia, Arctoidea, Carnivora, fossil record, temporal information, body mass evolution, pinnipeds, character evolution, molecular phylogeny
MeSH terms
Animals, Carnivora, Biological Evolution, Fossils, Body Size

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