Vintana and Adalatherium: Late Cretaceous Madagascar wombats in the LRT

Today’s housekeeping of the mammal subset
of the large reptile tree (LRT, 2338 taxa) revealed earlier mistakes that are here corrected.

Vintana and Adalatherium, both from Cretaceous Madagascar,
(Figs 1, 2) now nest in the LRT with the extant Australian wombat (Vombatus, Fig 3).

That means the ancestors of these taxa
were roaming both conjoined land masses prior to the continental drift that now separates Madagascar from Australia.

This is not a molecular clock, but a geological timepiece.

According to wettropics.gov.au:
“About 140 million years ago, at the start of the Cretaceous period, Africa/South America split from Australasia/India/Antarctica. Dinosaurs still roamed the earth, the climate was warmer and sea levels were higher.”

Adalatherium hui
(Krause et al. 2020; Late Cretaceous) was originally considered a relative of multituberculates.

Not so according to the LRT, but not too far off.

According to Wikipedia – Adalatherium
“It is depicted in reconstructions as being built somewhat like a badger.” and “one the largest known Mesozoic mammals.”

Vintana sertichi
(Krause et al. 2014; Late Cretaceous, UA 9972; 12.4 cm skull length; is a Madagascar mammal originally considered a member of the Allotheria and Gondwanatheria, two clades that do not appear = are not recovered in the large reptile tree.

According to Wikipedia – Vintana
“Vintana is extremely relevant to the understanding of gondwanatheres because it is the first well-preserved skull, as opposed to previous fragments and teeth.”

Be wary whenever authors use superlatives like ‘extremely‘. Too often superlative adjectives fail to live up to their intention in paleontology. This is a case in point.

According to Wikipedia – Gondwanatheria
“They are generally considered to be closely related to the multituberculates and likely the euharamiyidians, well known from the Northern Hemisphere, with which they form the clade Allotheria.

“For several decades the affinities of the group were not clear, being first interpreted as early xenarthrans, or “toothless” mammals similar to the modern anteater. A variety of studies have placed them as allotheres related to multituberculates, possibly even true multituberculates, closer to cimolodonts than “plagiaulacidans” are.^[1][6][7][8] However, a more recent study recovered them as nested among haramiyidans, rendering them as non-mammalian cynodonts.”

Add these taxa to your own mammal cladogram to test results.

This appears to be a novel hypothesis of interrelationships.
If not, please provide a citation so I can promote it here.

Apologies for taking so long to get around to these two during revisions of 600+ mammals currently tested in the LRT. Every day there is something new to learn here.

References
Krause DW, Hoffmann S, Wible JR, Kirk EC, and several other authors 2014. First cranial remains of a gondwanatherian mammal reveal remarkable mosaicism. Nature. online. doi:10.1038/nature13922. ISSN 1476-4687.
Krause DW et al. 2014. Vintana sertichi (Mammalia, Gondwanatheria) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir 14. 222pp.
Krause DW et al  (10+ co-authors) 2020. Skeleton of a Cretaceous mammal from Madagascar reflects long-term insularity. Nature. 581(7809): 421–427.
Krause DW et al 2020b. Craniofacial morphology of Adalatherium hui (Mammalia, Gondwanatheria) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 40 (sup1): 19–66.

wiki/Vintana
wki/Adalatherium
wiki/Gondwanatheria

Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/06/04/vintana-and-adalatherium-late-cretaceous-madagascar-wombats-in-the-lrt/