Carnivoran Evolution: New Views on Phylogeny, Form and Function

Abstract

With its high taxonomic, morphological, and ecological diversity and excellent fossil record, the placental mammal order Carnivora has proven to be a model group for addressing questions of large evolutionary significance. Recent work has resulted in a well-resolved phylogeny of extant taxa, as well as for many extinct clades, allowing for rigorous analysis of a wide range of evolutionary questions. Although the order is named after its meat-eating members, the dietary breadth of living carnivorans (members of the order Carnivora) extends from frugivorous to insectivorous taxa, durophagous taxa, as well as the hypercarnivorous taxa that are usually associated with the group. Carnivoran locomotor diversity is also remarkable among mammals, with fully aquatic, semi-aquatic, arboreal, terrestrial, and fossorial taxa. Recent studies have shown that this diversity extends to their early fossil representatives. Multiple ecological and morphological convergences of carnivorans and distantly related clades, including the extinct creodonts and extant and extinct carnivorous marsupials, also strengthen the utility of carnivorans for comparative ecomorphological and biomechanical studies. This volume focuses not only on the current advances in our understanding of mammalian carnivoran evolution, but especially on how carnivorans are being used as a model clade for testing new methodologies and addressing fundamental issues in palaeontology, which can ultimately be applied to clades with poorer fossil records.