New data on mole origins recovered by the LRT
The European mole,
Talpa (Figs 1, 3), now nests with Macroscelides (Figs 1, 2), the short-eared elephant shrew.
Earlier in the LRT they were close, but not this close.
DGS colors highlight the expanded auditory bulla
(dusky yellow), extending almost across the dorsal skull in Macroscelides, then completing their coverage and fusing together over the brain in Talpa.
Lower right: Talpa, the mole. ” data-image-caption=”
Figure 1. Left: Anagale skull in 3 views. Right: Macroscelides skull in 3 views. In palatal view both have large palatal fenestra, as in many herbivorous marsupials – by convergence. Arrow points to an antorbital fenestra in Macroscelides – by convergence with archosauriformes and by convergence with fenestrasauria.
Lower right: Talpa, the mole.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/anagale-macroscelides.skull588-1.jpg?w=234″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/anagale-macroscelides.skull588-1.jpg?w=584″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button” class=”size-full wp-image-88856″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/anagale-macroscelides.skull588-1.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Left: Anagale skull in 3 views. Right: Macroscelides skull in 3 views. In palatal view both have large palatal fenestra, as in many herbivorous marsupials – by convergence. Arrow points to an antorbital fenestra in Macroscelides – by convergence with archosauriformes and by convergence with fenestrasauria.Lower right: Talpa, the mole.” width=”584″ height=”749″ />
Figure 1. Left: Anagale skull in 3 views. Right: Macroscelides skull in 3 views. In palatal view both have large palatal fenestra, as in many herbivorous marsupials – by convergence. Arrow points to an antorbital fenestra in Macroscelides – by convergence with archosauriformes and by convergence with fenestrasauria.
Lower right: Talpa, the mole.
In the LRT
Talpa was never far from Macroscelides, Anagale and Leptictis in the LRT (subset Fig 4), but now the expanded otic capsules on Talpa are recognized and so is the fused radius+ ulna shared with Macroscelides.
These two taxa have distinct lifestyles and niches,
above and through the leaf litter as a speedy insectivore (Macroscelides) and below the ground as a digging insectivore (Talpa). Perhaps that’s why they (and odontocetes) were never nested together until the LRT came along. Adding taxa resolves all engimas, questions and never-thought-of-that-before interrelationships.
Figure 6. Rhynchocyon (above) and Macroscelides (below) compared. Though both are considered elephant shrews, they nest in separate major mammal clades in the LRT.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rhynchocyon_macroscleides_compared.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rhynchocyon_macroscleides_compared.jpg?w=584″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button” class=”size-full wp-image-24420″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rhynchocyon_macroscleides_compared.jpg” alt=”Figure 6. Rhynchocyon (above) and Macroscelides (below) compared. Though both are considered elephant shrews, they nest in separate major mammal clades in the LRT.” width=”584″ height=”572″ />
Figure 2. Rhynchocyon (above) and Macroscelides (below) compared. Though both are considered elephant shrews, they nest close to, but not next to each other in the LRT.
The homologous flexible elephant-like nose tubes
shared by elephant shrews and moles (Fig 1) were recognized earlier, but never scored in the LRT.
Figure 3. Talpa, the European mole in vivo.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/talpa_europaea588invivo.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/talpa_europaea588invivo.jpg?w=584″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button” class=”size-full wp-image-88872″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/talpa_europaea588invivo.jpg” alt=”Figure 3. Talpa, the European mole in vivo.” width=”584″ height=”332″ />
Figure 3. Talpa, the European mole in vivo.
Sound detection
is key to this clade. Early members had large auditory bulla = capsules. Derived members, like Tenrec and all odontocetes developed echo-location apart from and convergent with bats.
Figure 5. Subset of the LRT focusing on the clade that includes moles and odontocetes. Yes, you read that correctly.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/talpa-lepitictids2024.jpg?w=141″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/talpa-lepitictids2024.jpg?w=481″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button” class=”size-full wp-image-88874″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/talpa-lepitictids2024.jpg” alt=”Figure 5. Subset of the LRT focusing on the clade that includes moles and odontocetes. Yes, you read that correctly.” width=”584″ height=”1242″ />
Figure 5. Subset of the LRT focusing on the clade that includes moles and odontocetes. Yes, you read that correctly.
The earliest known mole
Eotalpa, is from the Late Eocene and known from 3D bits and pieces accumulated during screenwashing sediments. So it cannot be added to the LRT. Hooker 2015 reports, “Ungual and metatarsal shape and ulnar structure suggest a primitive stage in fossorial evolution and argue against a semiaquatic precursor stage in talpid fossoriality. Shrew-moles may represent a reversal to surface foraging rather than an intermediate stage in fossoriality.”
Hooker’s hypothesis is not supported by the LRT, which tests more taxa.
Interesting tidbit according to Wikipedia,
“Moles have been found to tolerate higher levels of carbon dioxide than other mammals, because their blood cells have a special form of hemoglobin that has a higher affinity to oxygen than other forms. In addition, moles use oxygen more effectively by reusing the exhaled air, and can survive in low-oxygen environments such as burrows.”
So odontocetes came by their respiratory abilities quite early, or by convergence or by reversal. In any case, they share this trait.
Figure 7. The skull of Macroscelides in two views. Inset maginifies the pmx-mx suture and what little is left of the canine (orange) between them.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/macroscelides-proboscideus-skull588.jpg?w=136″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/macroscelides-proboscideus-skull588.jpg?w=464″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button” class=”size-full wp-image-88893″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/macroscelides-proboscideus-skull588.jpg” alt=”Figure 7. The skull of Macroscelides in two views. Inset maginifies the pmx-mx suture and what little is left of the canine (orange) between them.” width=”584″ height=”1290″ />
Figure 6. The skull of Macroscelides in two views. Inset maginifies the pmx-mx suture and what little is left of the canine (orange) between them.
But wait – there’s no canine in Macrosceliedes!
All related taxa have a distinct canine tooth. Macroscelides does not, even though one is labeled in the above diagram (Fig 6).
Earlier we learned that a double-rooted tooth is a premolar. In Macroscelides that anterior premolar has taken the place of the canine at the leading edge of the maxilla. On closer examination (Fig 6 inset) a slender vestige siingle root canine is still visible between the premaxilla and maxilla.
While we’re on the subject of anomalies,
the palate of Macroscelides has several marsupial-like perforations (BTW, not all marsupials have these).
This is convergence. So is the antorbital fenestra (Fig 6).
The Asian shrew mole Uropsilius
is not related to Talpa in the LRT. It is closer to shrews. This is contra traditional thinking.
Desmana, the desman
is likewise closer to shrews than to moles in the LRT. This is contra traditional thinking.
The putative clade Talpidae
s not supported by the LRT. Superficial similarities are not homologies in the LRT where more taxa lump and split clades, more closely modeling evolutionary events. The clade Talpidae was named in 1814, long before fossil terrestrial relatives and ‘walking whales’ were described and tested in analysis.
References
Hooker JJ 2015. Skeletal adaptations and phylogeny of the oldest mole Eotalpa (Talpidae, Lipotyphla, Mammalia) from the UK Eocene: the beginning of fossoriality in moles. Palaeontology 59(2):195–216.
wiki/Talpa
wiki/Mole_(animal)
wiki/Talpidae
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2024/09/21/new-data-on-mole-origins-recovered-by-the-lrt/
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