Early Cretaceous Vincelestes relatives in the LRT

Early Cretaceous Vincelestes
had a small marsupial sabertoothed skull (Fig 1), but was not close to the sabertooth marsupials we just looked at in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2319 taxa). Large, but not hyper-large fangs were more common in marsupials. Vincelestes is the oldest known member of this clade that now includes Oligocene Galadi, Eocene Sinopa, Limnocyon and Thinocyon all shown almost full scale on 72 dpi monitors.

Note the twin concavities in the posterior frontal (Fig 1), where it meets the parietal.

Figure 1. Limnocyon, Vincelestes and kin. Note the twin concavities in the posterior frontal, where it meets the parietal. Compare the size of the canine in little Vincelestes compared to the canine in the larger Sinopa. ” data-image-caption=”

Figure 1. Limnocyon, Vincelestes and kin. Note the twin concavities in the posterior frontal, where it meets the parietal. Compare the size of the canine in little Vincelestes compared to the canine in the larger Sinopa.

” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/limnocyon_verus588-3.jpg?w=73″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/limnocyon_verus588-3.jpg?w=248″ class=”size-full wp-image-86326″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/limnocyon_verus588-3.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Limnocyon, Vincelestes and kin. Note the twin concavities in the posterior frontal, where it meets the parietal. Compare the size of the canine in little Vincelestes compared to the canine in the larger Sinopa.” width=”584″ height=”2415″ />

Figure 1. Limnocyon, Vincelestes and kin. Note the twin concavities in the posterior frontal, where it meets the parietal. Compare the size of the canine in little Vincelestes compared to the canine in the larger Sinopa.

Vincelestes neuquenianus
(Bonaparte 1986, Early Cretaceous, 130 mya) is a carnivorous marsupial sister to Pataogosmilus. Note the hyper-enlarged canines and short rostrum.. Nine individuals are known. The skeleton shown here (Fig 2) is probably a chimaera of several specimens and the degree of completion is unknown. The tail is extraordinarily long and provided with deep chevrons.

Figure x. Vincelestes overall. ” data-image-caption=”

Figure x. Vincelestes overall.

” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/vincelestes-overall588.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/vincelestes-overall588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-27836″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/vincelestes-overall588.jpg” alt=”Figure x. Vincelestes overall.” width=”584″ height=”237″ />

Figure 2. Vincelestes overall.

Sinopa rapax
(Leidy 1871; Eocene-Early Oligocene; 50mya) was traditionally considered a creodont relative of Hyaenodon, but here nests between Dasyurus and Sarcophilus. It is slightly larger than Sarcophilus. Not sure about those premaxillary teeth. The dentary canines are larger than the maxillary canines. This genus is not related to Palaeosinopa.

Limnocyon verus
(Marsh 1872, Middle Eocene) is known from a complete skull and mandibles plus a few uncrushed post-cranial bones.

Thinocyon medius
(Marsh 1872, Matthew 1909, Morlo and Gunnell 2003, Middle Eocene) was traditionally considered a small limnocyonine hyaenodontid mammal, but here nests with Vincelestes among the creodonts. According to Morlo and Gunnell: “Limnocyoninae are relatively small hyaenodontid creodonts characterized by reduction and loss of upper and lower third molars.”

References
Bonaparte JF 1986. Sobre Mesungulatum houusayi y nuevos mamíferos Cretácicos de Patagonia, Argentina [On Mesungulatum houssayi and new Cretaceous mammals from Patagonia, Argentina]. Actas del IV Congreso Argentino de Paleontología y Biostratigrafía 2:48-61.
Marsh OC 1872. Preliminary description of new Tertiary mammals. American Journal of Science and Art, 4: Part I: 122-128, Part 11-IV: 202-224.
Matthew WD 1909. The Carnivora and Insectivora of the Bridger Basin, middle Eocene. Memoires of the American Museum of Natural History, 9: 289-567.
Morlo M and Gunnell GF 2003. Small limnocyonines (Hyaenodontidae, Mammalia) from the Bridgerian Middle Eocene of Wyoming: Thinocyon, Prolimnocyon, and Iridodon, new genus. Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, The University of Michigan31(2):43–78.

wiki/Vincelestes
wiki/Thinocyon – not yet posted
wiki/Limnocyonidae
wiki/Sinopa