Phylogeny

The phylogenetic relationships of anguinomorph lizards are reconsidered on the basis of the structure of the head musculature, of the skull, and of the atlas - axis complex. A basal dichotomy separates the Anguinomorpha into the Anguinoidea and Platynota. The most primitive Anguinoidea are gerrhonotiform lizards. They share common ancestry with a hypothetical common ancestor of the Anguinae and Diploglossinae. Anniella is most closely related to the Anguinae among the Anguinoidea. The relationships of XenosaulUs and ShinisaulUs are poorly determinable on the basis of present evidence. For reasons of parsimony, the two genera are included within the same family, the Xenosauridae, which is tentatively derived from the transitional field leading from the Gerrhono- tinae to the hypothetical ancestor of the Anguinae and Diploglossinae.

An insightful new work, Function, Phylogeny, and Fossils integrates two practices in paleobiology which are often separated - functional and phylogenetic analysis. The book summarizes the evidence on paleoenvironments at the most important Miocene hominoid sites and relates it to the pertinent fossil record. The contributors present the most up-to-date statements on the functional anatomy and likely behavior of the best known hominoids of this crucial period of ape and human evolution. A key feature is a comprehensive table listing 240 characteristics among 13 genera of living and extinct hominoids.

This book provides an update on the phylogeny, systematics and ecology of horses in South America based on data provided over the past three decades. The contemporary South American mammalian communities were shaped by the emergence of the Isthmus of Panama and by the profound climatic oscillations during the Pleistocene. Horses were a conspicuous group of immigrant mammals from North America that arrived in South America during the Pleistocene.