Evolutionary history of the marsupials and an analysis of osteological characters

by Frederick S. Szalay

Evolutionary History of the Marsupials and an Analysis of Osteological Characters has a dual aim. Its overriding concern is the critical assessment of the extant and fossil morphological evidence against which phylogenetic hypotheses of marsupial phylogeny and taxa should be tested. In addition to a reexamination of published character complexes and the proposed taxa, the author presents a detailed analysis of new fossils and osteological information previously not considered in phylogenetic studies of marsupials. All the higher metatherians are diagnosed and discussed in detail in the book, and a final chapter presents an analysis of the evolution and paleobiogeography of the marsupials. . In addition to the primary aim of the book, which is to arrive at an interim, but most plausible phylogeny and biogeography of the marsupials, the book also discusses the methods of phylogeny reconstruction, and the special significance of the skeleton. It is argued that the use of osteological prop