IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v11y2020i1d10.1038_s41467-020-18898-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reptile-like physiology in Early Jurassic stem-mammals

Author

Listed:
  • Elis Newham

    (University of Bristol
    University of Southampton)

  • Pamela G. Gill

    (University of Bristol
    The Natural History Museum)

  • Philippa Brewer

    (The Natural History Museum)

  • Michael J. Benton

    (University of Bristol)

  • Vincent Fernandez

    (The Natural History Museum
    ESRF, The European Synchrotron)

  • Neil J. Gostling

    (University of Southampton)

  • David Haberthür

    (Paul Scherrer Institut
    University of Bern)

  • Jukka Jernvall

    (University of Helsinki)

  • Tuomas Kankaanpää

    (University of Helsinki)

  • Aki Kallonen

    (University of Helsinki)

  • Charles Navarro

    (University of Bristol)

  • Alexandra Pacureanu

    (ESRF, The European Synchrotron)

  • Kelly Richards

    (Oxford University Museum of Natural History)

  • Kate Robson Brown

    (University of Bristol)

  • Philipp Schneider

    (University of Southampton)

  • Heikki Suhonen

    (University of Helsinki)

  • Paul Tafforeau

    (ESRF, The European Synchrotron)

  • Katherine A. Williams

    (University of Southampton)

  • Berit Zeller-Plumhoff

    (Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht)

  • Ian J. Corfe

    (University of Helsinki
    Geological Survey of Finland)

Abstract

Despite considerable advances in knowledge of the anatomy, ecology and evolution of early mammals, far less is known about their physiology. Evidence is contradictory concerning the timing and fossil groups in which mammalian endothermy arose. To determine the state of metabolic evolution in two of the earliest stem-mammals, the Early Jurassic Morganucodon and Kuehneotherium, we use separate proxies for basal and maximum metabolic rate. Here we report, using synchrotron X-ray tomographic imaging of incremental tooth cementum, that they had maximum lifespans considerably longer than comparably sized living mammals, but similar to those of reptiles, and so they likely had reptilian-level basal metabolic rates. Measurements of femoral nutrient foramina show Morganucodon had blood flow rates intermediate between living mammals and reptiles, suggesting maximum metabolic rates increased evolutionarily before basal metabolic rates. Stem mammals lacked the elevated endothermic metabolism of living mammals, highlighting the mosaic nature of mammalian physiological evolution.

Suggested Citation

  • Elis Newham & Pamela G. Gill & Philippa Brewer & Michael J. Benton & Vincent Fernandez & Neil J. Gostling & David Haberthür & Jukka Jernvall & Tuomas Kankaanpää & Aki Kallonen & Charles Navarro & Alex, 2020. "Reptile-like physiology in Early Jurassic stem-mammals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-18898-4
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18898-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18898-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-020-18898-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lauren N. Wilson & Jacob D. Gardner & John P. Wilson & Alex Farnsworth & Zackary R. Perry & Patrick S. Druckenmiller & Gregory M. Erickson & Chris L. Organ, 2024. "Global latitudinal gradients and the evolution of body size in dinosaurs and mammals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Shai Meiri & Eran Levin, 2022. "Revisiting life history and morphological proxies for early mammaliaform metabolic rates," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-3, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-18898-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.