In the Mammalia, vestigial skeletal structures abound but have not previously been the focus of study, with a few exceptions (e.g., whale pelves). Here we use a phylogenetic bracketing approach to identify vestigial structures in mammalian postcranial skeletons and present a descriptive survey of such structures in the Mammalia. We also correct previous misidentifications, including the previou...

BACKGROUND Two recent studies published in the same issue of Nature reached conflicting conclusions regarding the phylogeny of early mammals: One places the clade containing haramiyidans and multituberculates within the Mammalia and the other separates haramiyidans from multituberculates and places the former outside of the Mammalia. These two contrasting results require that the minimally olde...

•Current controversies about the definitions of taxon names reflect different underlying philosophical perspectives concerning the nature of definitions. The antithetical perspectives, called methodological essentialism and methodological nominalism (Popper, 1966, The open society and its enemies, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ), are exemplified by alternative views in a controversy surro...

Photographic evidence of the Spotted linsang Prionodon pardicolor (Mammalia: Carnivora: Prionodontidae) from Tashigang Forest Division, Eastern Bhutan

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Gestation periods in mammals are generally in line with scaling laws. There are several exceptions in which species of relatively similar size and degree of neonatal maturation show a significant difference in gestation length. For example the giraffids have a very long gestation period, compared to bovids of similar size. By using published data about the placental surface area at term, we sho...