Vulpavus compared to Cainotherium and Oodectes
Taxa at the base of the Carnivora clade
are ancestral to the clades Primates and Artiodactyla. Four taxa are shown here (Figs 1–3). Skull-only Oodectes is about the size of the terrestrial and hoofed Cainotherium, which has smaller anterior teeth. They both descend in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2338 taxa) from a larger arboreal ancestor, Vulpavus after the latest round of housekeeping.
Yet another case of phylogenetic miniaturization
at the genesis of new clades with novel traits.
Figure 1. Vulpavus museum mount revised to fit a Cainotherium mount.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/vulpavus_cainotherium588.gif?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/vulpavus_cainotherium588.gif?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-94888″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/vulpavus_cainotherium588.gif” alt=”Figure 1. Vulpavus museum mount revised to fit a Cainotherium mount. ” width=”584″ height=”510″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/vulpavus_cainotherium588.gif?w=584&h=510 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/vulpavus_cainotherium588.gif?w=150&h=131 150w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/vulpavus_cainotherium588.gif?w=300&h=262 300w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/vulpavus_cainotherium588.gif 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. Vulpavus museum mount revised to fit a Cainotherium mount. See figure 3 for Cainotherium skeleton in color.
Oodectes and Cainotherium
also have a shorter rostrum and larger orbit, further evidence of neotony and precocious reproduction = kids having kids. Cainotherium has tiny canines to go with its unguligrade extremities = weight born by sharp hooves, evidence of a trend away from hunting and toward herbivory.
Even so, Cainotherium is not a basal member of the Artiodactyla in the LRT. Instead it represents a unique, separate and terminal taxon, leading to no other taxa at present.
In essence, Eocene Cainotherium was an herbivorous, hoofed basal member of the Carnivora, using the last common ancestor method of establishing interrelationships.
This is an example of convergence recovered by the LRT.
Hopefully this phylogenetic insight will no longer cause trouble in the LRT – but the strongly convergent traits found throughout the Mammalia indicate otherwise. Other headaches will, no doubt, arise.
Giant adapid primates
were basal to the clade Artiodactyla in the LRT. Early artiodactyls had five fingers, including a short thumb. So did Cainotherium.
Figure 1. Two Vulpavus specimens to scale with Talpa (below)
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/vulpavus_skull_ovatus_diagram588-1.jpg?w=189″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/vulpavus_skull_ovatus_diagram588-1.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-94695″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/vulpavus_skull_ovatus_diagram588-1.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Two Vulpavus specimens to scale with Talpa (below)” width=”584″ height=”927″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/vulpavus_skull_ovatus_diagram588-1.jpg?w=584&h=927 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/vulpavus_skull_ovatus_diagram588-1.jpg?w=95&h=150 95w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/vulpavus_skull_ovatus_diagram588-1.jpg?w=189&h=300 189w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/vulpavus_skull_ovatus_diagram588-1.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. Two Vulpavus specimens to scale with Talpa (below)
Talpa, the European mole
(Fig 2), is another example of phylogenetic miniaturization arising from Vulpavus, again out of the branches but this time down to a burrowing lifestyle.
Figure 3. Cainotherium and Oodectes skulls (above). Cainotherium skeleton (below). DGS colors added here.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/cainotherium_oodectes588.jpg?w=175″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/cainotherium_oodectes588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-94892″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/cainotherium_oodectes588.jpg” alt=”Figure 3. Cainotherium and Oodectes skulls (above). Cainotherium skeleton (below). DGS colors added here. ” width=”584″ height=”1001″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/cainotherium_oodectes588.jpg?w=584&h=1001 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/cainotherium_oodectes588.jpg?w=88&h=150 88w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/cainotherium_oodectes588.jpg?w=175&h=300 175w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/cainotherium_oodectes588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 3. Cainotherium and Oodectes skulls (above). Cainotherium skeleton (below). DGS colors added here. Note the smaller teeth on Cainotherium.
Despite their phylogenetic proximity now,
the hypothetical interrelationship of these four taxa (Figs 1-3) took well over a year to recover due to their morphological disparity.
As long-time readers know,
mammals have been the most difficult subset of the LRT to understand, and the work is not yet finished. No wonder academic mammal workers fell out of love with using fossils and trait analysis and turned instead to attempting recovery of interrelationships using genomics.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t worked out so well, either, but presently there’s no third way to go that models evolutionary events down to the genus and includes fossil taxa.
This hypothetical interrelationship could change. The mammal subset has been fragile, with changes on one end affecting interrelationships on the other. At this point I have no hope that fragility will fade out. Some problems have to be lived with.
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/10/12/vulpavus-compared-to-cainotherium-and-oodectes/
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