Marsupial mole gene study 2025: not all secrets unearthed
Frankeberg et al 2024 reported,
“The marsupial moles (Notoryctes, Fig 1) are arguably Australia’s most enigmatic marsupials. Almost indistinguishable from placental (eutherian) moles, they provide a striking example of convergent evolution.”
Not convergent. In the large reptile tree (LRT, 2330 taxa) placental golden moles, like Chrysochloris, are derived from the marsupial mole. The authors were working under the false assumption that placentals evolved only once. Wortman 1902 reported three times. The LRT confirmed the 1902 hypothesis.
Figure 1. Notoryctes, the marsupial mole, and Chrysolchloris, the Golden mole, a placental2 taxon.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/notoryctes_chrysochloris_invivo588.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/notoryctes_chrysochloris_invivo588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-91007″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/notoryctes_chrysochloris_invivo588.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Notoryctes, the marsupial mole, and Chrysolchloris, the Golden mole, a placental2 taxon. ” width=”584″ height=”437″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/notoryctes_chrysochloris_invivo588.jpg?w=584&h=437 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/notoryctes_chrysochloris_invivo588.jpg?w=150&h=112 150w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/notoryctes_chrysochloris_invivo588.jpg?w=300&h=224 300w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/notoryctes_chrysochloris_invivo588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. Notoryctes, the marsupial mole, and Chrysochloris, the Golden mole, a placental2 taxon.
The Frankenberg et al study suffered from taxon exclusion.
Relatives (Fig 2) recovered by the LRT (subset Fig 3) were omitted or ignored. Marsupial moles extend back to Middle Jurassic Docofossor in the LRT and radiate into a second of three placental clades.
Figure 1. The origin of marsupial moles in the LRT includes Middle Jurassic Docofossor and Notoryctes Three placental2 txaa are derived from this clade. Miocene Necroletes is a placental2 close to the extant golden mole, Chrysochloris.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/chrysochloris-uropsilus-skulls588.jpg?w=101″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/chrysochloris-uropsilus-skulls588.jpg?w=344″ class=”size-full wp-image-91011″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/chrysochloris-uropsilus-skulls588.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. The origin of marsupial moles in the LRT includes Middle Jurassic Docofossor and Notoryctes Three placental2 txaa are derived from this clade. Miocene Necroletes is a placental2 close to the extant golden mole, Chrysochloris.” width=”584″ height=”1737″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/chrysochloris-uropsilus-skulls588.jpg?w=584&h=1737 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/chrysochloris-uropsilus-skulls588.jpg?w=50&h=150 50w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/chrysochloris-uropsilus-skulls588.jpg?w=101&h=300 101w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/chrysochloris-uropsilus-skulls588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 2. The origin of marsupial moles in the LRT includes Middle Jurassic Docofossor and Notoryctes Three placental2 txaa are derived from this clade. Miocene Necroletes is a placental2 close to the extant golden mole, Chrysochloris.
Frankenberg et al reported,
“Previous efforts to define the marsupial mole’s phylogeny have resulted in conflicting evidence for their evolutionary position within Euaustralidelphia—the clade of australidelphian marsupials. Some morphological analyses supported a close relationship between Notoryctemorphia and Peramelemorphia. However, this contradicts early DNA hybridization studies, suggesting that Notoryctemorphia is only distantly related to Peramelemorphia and closer to Diprotodontia.”
The closer LRT relatives to Notoryctes (Figs 2, 3) were omitted or ignored in the Frankenberg et al study from 2025.
Peramelemorphia = bandicoots and bilibies. Diprotodontia = wombats.
Figure 3. Subset of the LRT focusing on Notoryctes and its relatives, some of which are placental2 taxa.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/notoryctes_cladogram588-1.jpg?w=213″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/notoryctes_cladogram588-1.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-91017″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/notoryctes_cladogram588-1.jpg” alt=”Figure 3. Subset of the LRT focusing on Notoryctes and its relatives, some of which are placental2 taxa. ” width=”584″ height=”822″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/notoryctes_cladogram588-1.jpg?w=584&h=822 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/notoryctes_cladogram588-1.jpg?w=107&h=150 107w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/notoryctes_cladogram588-1.jpg?w=213&h=300 213w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/notoryctes_cladogram588-1.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 3. Subset of the LRT focusing on Notoryctes and its relatives, some of which are placental2 taxa.
Again, beware of superlatives in headlines.
They are meant to grab your attention. In this case, “Unearthing the secrets of Australia’s most enigmatic and cryptic mammal, the marsupial mole.” Apparently these secrets will remain enigmatic and cryptic only to Notoryctes workers who don’t add a wide gamut of taxa to their trait-based cladograms.
The LRT is an ongoing and growing hypothesis of interrelationships. It minimizes taxon exclusion by including a wide gamut of taxa. Like all hypotheses, it requires testing by independent workers using a similar taxon list for confirmation, refutation or modification.
See the publicity notes below
for more information.
References
Frankenberg SR et al (more than a dozen co-authors) 2025. Unearthing the secrets of Australia’s most enigmatic and cryptic mammal, the marsupial mole. Frankenberg et al., Sci. Adv. 11, eado4140
Wortman JL 1901-1903. Studies of Eocene Mammalia in the Marsh Collection, Peabody Museum. Am. Jour. Sci. 11:333–348.
Golden mole Chrysochloris: yet another placental derived from marsupials
Publicity
theconversation.com/world-first-study-reveals-the-mysteries-of-the-desert-dwelling-marsupial-mole
“Hidden beneath the dunes, a mysterious creature glides through the sand. This is not one of the giant worms of Arrakis in Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic, Dune. Rather, it’s an enigmatic and tiny mammal found only in the deserts of Australia – the marsupial mole.”
“they are rarely observed. In fact, there are only a handful of sightings each decade. “
“their eyes are tiny and located beneath their skin, making them functionally blind.”
This is a reversal to the hagfish condition.
“first lost genes critical for the eye’s lens. “
This is a reversal to the hagfish condition.
“For years the marsupial mole’s strange, specialised traits have frustrated attempts to determine precisely who its closest relatives actually are. But sequencing its genome has allowed us to trace its evolutionary heritage.”
Taxon exclusion mars this evolutionary heritage.
“Our examination revealed marsupial moles are a sister group to bandicoots and bilbies, with carnivorous marsupials like the Tasmanian devil being distant cousins.”
This is not confirmed by the LRT (Fig 3).
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/01/10/marsupial-mole-gene-study-2025-not-all-secrets-unearthed/
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How much easier would child birth be for women if we went down the marsupial road.