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Comparison of dental topography of marmosets and tamarins (Callitrichidae) to other platyrrhine primates using a novel freeware pipeline (2024)
Journal Article

Dental topographic metrics (DTMs), which quantify different aspects of the shape of teeth, are powerful tools for studying dietary adaptation and evolution in mammals. However, comparative samples of scanned mammal teeth suitable for analysis with D... Read More about Comparison of dental topography of marmosets and tamarins (Callitrichidae) to other platyrrhine primates using a novel freeware pipeline.

Comparison of dental topography of marmosets and tamarins (Callitrichidae) to other platyrrhine primates using a novel freeware pipeline (2024)
Journal Article

Dental topographic metrics (DTMs), which quantify different aspects of the shape of teeth, are powerful tools for studying dietary adaptation and evolution in mammals. Current DTM protocols usually rely on proprietary software, which may be unavailab... Read More about Comparison of dental topography of marmosets and tamarins (Callitrichidae) to other platyrrhine primates using a novel freeware pipeline.

A 50-million-year-old, three-dimensionally preserved bat skull supports an early origin for modern echolocation (2023)
Journal Article
Hand, S. J., Maugoust, J., Beck, R. M., & Orliac, M. J. (2023). A 50-million-year-old, three-dimensionally preserved bat skull supports an early origin for modern echolocation. Current Biology, 33(21), 4624-4640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.09.043

Bats are among the most recognizable, numerous, and widespread of all mammals. But much of their fossil record is missing, and bat origins remain poorly understood, as do the relationships of early to modern bats. Here, we describe a new early Eocene... Read More about A 50-million-year-old, three-dimensionally preserved bat skull supports an early origin for modern echolocation.

A probable koala from the Oligocene of central Australia provides insights into early diprotodontian evolution (2023)
Journal Article
Crichton, A. I., Beck, R. M. D., Couzens, A. M. C., Worthy, T. H., Camens, A. B., & Prideaux, G. J. (2023). A probable koala from the Oligocene of central Australia provides insights into early diprotodontian evolution. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 14521. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41471-0

Diprotodontians are the morphologically and ecologically most diverse order of marsupials. However, an approximately 30-million-year gap in the Australian terrestrial vertebrate fossil record means that the first half of diprotodontian evolution is u... Read More about A probable koala from the Oligocene of central Australia provides insights into early diprotodontian evolution.

First known extinct feathertail possums (Acrobatidae, Marsupialia): palaeobiodiversity, phylogenetics, palaeoecology and palaeogeography (2023)
Journal Article
Fabian, P. R., Archer, M., Hand, S. J., & Beck, R. M. (in press). First known extinct feathertail possums (Acrobatidae, Marsupialia): palaeobiodiversity, phylogenetics, palaeoecology and palaeogeography. Alcheringa, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/03115518.2023.2242439

Four new fossil feathertail possum species (Marsupialia, Diprotodontia, Phalangerida, Petauroidea, Acrobatidae) are described from late Oligocene to middle Miocene fossil deposits in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland. They... Read More about First known extinct feathertail possums (Acrobatidae, Marsupialia): palaeobiodiversity, phylogenetics, palaeoecology and palaeogeography.

Twenty-five well-justified fossil calibrations for primate divergences (2023)
Journal Article
de Vries, D., & Beck, R. M. D. (2023). Twenty-five well-justified fossil calibrations for primate divergences. #Journal not on list, 26(1), https://doi.org/10.26879/1249

Phylogenies with estimates of divergence times are essential for investigating many evolutionary questions. In principle, “tip-dating” is arguably the most appropriate approach, with fossil and extant taxa analysed together in a single analysis, and... Read More about Twenty-five well-justified fossil calibrations for primate divergences.

Cranial remains of Ramsayia magna from the Late Pleistocene of Australia and the evolution of gigantism in wombats (Marsupialia, Vombatidae) (2022)
Journal Article
Louys, J., Duval, M., Beck, R., Pease, E., Sobbe, I., Sands, N., & Price, G. (2022). Cranial remains of Ramsayia magna from the Late Pleistocene of Australia and the evolution of gigantism in wombats (Marsupialia, Vombatidae). Papers in Palaeontology, 8(6), https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1475

Giant wombats (defined here as ≥70 kg) are found in the genera Phascolonus, Ramsayia and perhaps Sedophascolomys. Ramsayia is currently the most poorly known, having been described from mandibular and cranial fragments. Here, we report the most compl... Read More about Cranial remains of Ramsayia magna from the Late Pleistocene of Australia and the evolution of gigantism in wombats (Marsupialia, Vombatidae).

Total evidence phylogeny of platyrrhine primates and a comparison of undated and tip-dating approaches (2022)
Journal Article
Beck, R., de Vries, D., Janiak, M., Goodhead, I., & Boubli, J. (2022). Total evidence phylogeny of platyrrhine primates and a comparison of undated and tip-dating approaches. Journal of Human Evolution, 174, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103293

There have been multiple published phylogenetic analyses of platyrrhine primates (New World
monkeys) using both morphological and molecular data, but relatively few that have integrated
both types of data into a total evidence approach. Here, we pr... Read More about Total evidence phylogeny of platyrrhine primates and a comparison of undated and tip-dating approaches.

Craniodental morphology and phylogeny of marsupials (2022)
Journal Article
Beck, R., Voss, R., & Jansa, S. (in press). Craniodental morphology and phylogeny of marsupials. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 1-350. https://doi.org/10.1206/0003-0090.457.1.1

The current literature on marsupial phylogenetics includes numerous studies based on analyses of morphological data with limited sampling of Recent and fossil taxa, and many studies based on analyses of molecular data with dense sampling of Recent ta... Read More about Craniodental morphology and phylogeny of marsupials.

Two hundred and five newly assembled mitogenomes provide mixed evidence for rivers as drivers of speciation for Amazonian primates (2022)
Journal Article

Mitochondrial DNA remains a cornerstone for molecular ecology, especially for study species from which high-quality tissue samples cannot be easily obtained. Methods using mitochondrial markers are usually reliant on reference databases, but these ar... Read More about Two hundred and five newly assembled mitogenomes provide mixed evidence for rivers as drivers of speciation for Amazonian primates.

Ancient DNA of the pygmy marmoset type specimen Cebuella pygmaea (Spix, 1823) resolves a taxonomic conundrum (2021)
Journal Article

The pygmy marmoset, the smallest of the anthropoid primates, has a broad distribution in Western Amazonia. Recent studies using molecular and morphological data have identified two distinct species separated by the Napo and Solimões-Amazonas rivers.... Read More about Ancient DNA of the pygmy marmoset type specimen Cebuella pygmaea (Spix, 1823) resolves a taxonomic conundrum.

Upper Oligocene–lower-middle Miocene peramelemorphians from the Etadunna, Namba and Wipajiri formations of South Australia (2021)
Journal Article
Travouillon, K., Beck, R., & Case, J. (2021). Upper Oligocene–lower-middle Miocene peramelemorphians from the Etadunna, Namba and Wipajiri formations of South Australia. Alcheringa, 45(1), 109-125. https://doi.org/10.1080/03115518.2021.1921274

The oldest fossils referable to the marsupial order Peramelemorphia (which includes modern bandicoots and bilbies) stratigraphically date from the upper Oligocene of Australia. Here we describe new ancient peramelemorphian remains from the Etadunna,... Read More about Upper Oligocene–lower-middle Miocene peramelemorphians from the Etadunna, Namba and Wipajiri formations of South Australia.

Global elongation and high shape flexibility as an evolutionary hypothesis of accommodating mammalian brains into skulls (2021)
Journal Article

Little is known about how the large brains of mammals are accommodated into the dazzling diversity of their skulls. It has been suggested that brain shape is influenced by relative brain size, that it evolves or develops according to extrinsic or int... Read More about Global elongation and high shape flexibility as an evolutionary hypothesis of accommodating mammalian brains into skulls.