Early tertiary elephant-shrews from Egypt and the origin of the Macroscelidea.

Abstract

Recent expeditions to the Fayum Depression, Egypt, have made possible the discovery of mandibles and a maxilla of a new genus and species of late Eocene elephant-shrew as well as initial evidence of the upper dentition of the early Oligocene taxon Metoldobotes. These fossils demonstrate that macroscelideans underwent a significant radiation in the Early Tertiary of Africa. Two new subfamilies are recognized and described. These Tertiary macroscelideans are the most primitive elephant-shrews known and indicate that previous hypotheses of a close phylogenetic relationship between macroscelideans and either lagomorphs, erinaceotans, or tree-shrews are unlikely. Rather, the dental anatomy of the Fayum macroscelideans provides evidence for a derivation of the order from within the Condylarthra.