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The Emergence of Whales pp 133–161Cite as

Phylogenetic and Morphometric Reassessment of the Dental Evidence for a Mesonychian and Cetacean Clade

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Part of the book series: Advances in Vertebrate Paleobiology ((AIVP,volume 1))

Abstract

Van Valen (1966, 1968, 1969, 1978) first hypothesized that mesonychians, an aberrant group of carnivorous mammals nested within the ungulates, are closely related to cetaceans. Discoveries of new cetacean and mesonychian fossils have prompted detailed descriptions of taxa in both groups (Szalay, 1969a,b; Ting and Li, 1987; Gingerich and Russell, 1990; O’Leary and Rose, 1995a,b; Zhou et al., 1995; Thewissen et al., 1996), classificatory changes (McKenna, 1975; McKenna and Bell, 1997), and cladistic analyses (Prothero et al., 1988; Thewissen, 1994; Zhou et al., 1995) (Fig. 1).

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  1. Maureen A. O’Leary

    Present address: Department of Anatomical Sciences, Health Sciences Center, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, 11794-8081, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell Biology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, 10016, USA

    Maureen A. O’Leary

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  1. Maureen A. O’Leary
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Rootstown, Ohio, 44272, USA

    J. G. M. Thewissen

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O’Leary, M.A. (1998). Phylogenetic and Morphometric Reassessment of the Dental Evidence for a Mesonychian and Cetacean Clade. In: Thewissen, J.G.M. (eds) The Emergence of Whales. Advances in Vertebrate Paleobiology, vol 1. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0159-0_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0159-0_5

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