The Bering Land Bridge has served as a major corridor of interchange between the northern continents for many organisms. We investigated the phylogeny of all extant species of Martes (except for Martes gwatkinsi from India) to infer evolutionary relationships and characterize the extent of trans-Beringian movements. Analyses of complete sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and parti...

A haramiyid tooth is described from the Upper Jurassic of Tendaguru in southwestern Tanzania, East Africa. The specimen, identified tentatively as a lower posterior premolar, is made the holotype of a new taxon, Staffia aenigmatica gen . e t sp. nov. which is placed in the Haramiyida . Staffa gen . nov. shares several features with Thomasia from the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic of Europe, no...

We present the first estimate of the phylogenetic relationships among all 916 extant and nine recently extinct species of bats Mammalia: Chiroptera), a group that accounts for almost one-quarter of extant mammalian diversity. This phylogeny was derived by combining 105 estimates of bat phylogenetic relationships published since 1970 using the supertree construction technique of Matrix Represent...

This study is undertaken in order to evaluate specific hypotheses of relationship among extant and extinct sloths (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Tardigrada). Questions of particular interest include the relationship among the three traditional family groupings of extinct ground sloths and the monophyletic or diphyletic origin of the two genera of extant tree sloths. A computer-based cladistic investigat...

This study investigates whether the gross morphology of mustelid and viverrid postcanine dentitions corresponds with differences in diet. For each species, the predominant foods ingested are used to form predictions of dental form and measurements of the carnassial and molar teeth determine the extent of shearing and crushing surfaces on the postcanine teeth. Principal components analysis disti...

At the Cleveland meeting of the American Association of Anatomists, (1912-1913), Curtis1 reported on wax plate reconstructions of the seminiferous tubules of the white mouse, presenting figures of a model of an entire tubule having an actual length of somewhat over 13 em. The tubule completely reconstructed presents the form of an arch, the two ends of the arch lying in close proximity, each te...