Apatemyids and marsupial ‘lions’ now nest together in the LRT
These three related taxa,
Apatemys (Fig 1) and Wakaleo (Fig 2) and Sinclairella (Fig 3) finally got together in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2329 taxa) as part of the last 260+ days of housekeeping the clade Mammalia. These extinct taxa are all derived from extant Petaurus, the sugar glider.
Again, some things become obvious only in hindsight
– and when one finally gets around to their re-study.
Figure 1. The skull of Apatemys in situ and reconstructed. Compare to figure 2.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/apatemys_skull_insitu588.jpg?w=260″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/apatemys_skull_insitu588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-90776″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/apatemys_skull_insitu588.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. The skull of Apatemys in situ and reconstructed. Compare to figure 2.” width=”584″ height=”673″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/apatemys_skull_insitu588.jpg?w=584&h=673 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/apatemys_skull_insitu588.jpg?w=130&h=150 130w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/apatemys_skull_insitu588.jpg?w=260&h=300 260w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/apatemys_skull_insitu588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. The skull of Apatemys in situ and reconstructed. Compare to figure 2.
According to Wikipedia – Apatemyidae,
“Apatemyidae is an extinct family of placental mammals that took part in the first placental evolutionary radiation together with other early mammals, such as the leptictids. Their relationships to other mammal groups are controversial; a 2010 study found them to be basal members of Euarchontoglires.
By contrast, Apatemyidae are marsupials derived from Petaurus (Fig 5). Wakaleo (Fig 2) and a larger marsupial lion, Thylacoleo, are also clade members.
Figure 2. The skull of Wakaleo. Colors added here. Compared to Apatemys in figure 1.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/wakaleo-vanderleuri588.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/wakaleo-vanderleuri588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-90777″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/wakaleo-vanderleuri588.jpg” alt=”Figure 2. The skull of Wakaleo. Colors added here. Compared to Apatemys in figure 1. ” width=”584″ height=”487″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/wakaleo-vanderleuri588.jpg?w=584&h=487 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/wakaleo-vanderleuri588.jpg?w=150&h=125 150w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/wakaleo-vanderleuri588.jpg?w=300&h=250 300w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/wakaleo-vanderleuri588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 2. The skull of Wakaleo. Colors added here. Compared to Apatemys in figure 1.
According to Wikipedia – Apatemyidae,
“Like most Paleocene mammals, the apatemyids were small and presumably insectivorous. Size ranged from that of a dormouse to a large rat. The toes were slender and well clawed, and the family were probably mainly arboreal. The skull was fairly massive compared to the otherwise slender skeleton, and the front teeth were long and hooked, resembling those of the modern aye-aye, both whom make their living by gnawing off bark with their front teeth to get at grubs and maggots beneath.”
According to the LRT, not all apatemyids were small (Fig 4).
Figure 3. Sinclairella is another small apatemyid. Here is the skull.
According to Wikipedia – Thylacoleo,
“Distinct possum-like characteristics led Thylacoleo to be regarded as members of Phalangeroidea for a few decades. Though a few authors continued to hint at phalangeroid affinities for thylacoleonids as recently as the 1990s, cranial and other characters have generally led to their inclusion within vombatiformes, and as stem-members of the wombat lineage.”
Figure 3. A selection fo Apatemyidae to two scales. Wakaleo is a large apatmyid in the LRT.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/apatemyidae2scale588.jpg?w=91″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/apatemyidae2scale588.jpg?w=309″ class=”size-full wp-image-90878″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/apatemyidae2scale588.jpg” alt=”Figure 3. A selection fo Apatemyidae to two scales. Wakaleo is a large apatmyid in the LRT.” width=”584″ height=”1933″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/apatemyidae2scale588.jpg?w=584&h=1933 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/apatemyidae2scale588.jpg?w=45&h=150 45w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/apatemyidae2scale588.jpg?w=91&h=300 91w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/apatemyidae2scale588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 4. A selection fo Apatemyidae to two scales. Wakaleo is a large apatmyid in the LRT.
These taxa are on the marsupial side
of the marsupial/placental3 split, close to the extant placental aye-aye, Daubentonia, extinct Plesiadapis and Castor, the extant beaver.
ALL of these taxa are wood bark gnawers. So why not Thylacoleo and Wakaleo?
According to Wikipedia – Thylacoleo,
“The marsupial lion is classified in the order Diprotodontia along with many other well-known marsupials such as kangaroos, possums, and the koala.
“The ancestors of thylacoleonids are believed to have been herbivores, something unusual for carnivores.”
“Pound for pound, T. carnifex had the strongest bite of any mammal species, living or extinct;”
“When Thylacoleo was first described by Richard Owen, he considered it to be a carnivore, based on the morphology of its skull and teeth. However other anatomists, such as William Henry Flower disagreed. Flower was the first to place Thylacoleo with the Diprotodonts, noting its skull and teeth to be laid out more like those of the koala and the wombat, and suggested that it was more likely a herbivore. Owen found little support in his lifetime, despite the pointing out of Thylacoleo’s retractable claws, something only found in mammalian carnivores, and its lack of any ability to chew plant material.”
Gillespie 2023 reported,
“The various species of Wakaleo are thought to have been carnivores.”
Maybe. Maybe not. All related taxa have the traits of wood gnawing herbivores.
This appears to be a novel hypothesis of interrelationships.
If not please provide a citation so I can promote it here.
References
Gillespie AK 2023. Two new marsupial lion taxa (Marsupialia, Thylacoleonidae) from the early and Middle Miocene of Australia. Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology: 1–16.
wiki/Apatemyidae
wiki/Thylacoleo
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/01/05/apatemyids-and-marsupial-lions-now-nest-together-in-the-lrt/
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