Shuotheriidae Explained

Shuotheriidae is a small family of Jurassic mammaliaforms whose remains are found in China, Britain and possibly Russia. They have been proposed to be close relatives of Australosphenida (which often controversially includes monotremes), together forming the clade Yinotheria. However, some studies suggest shuotheres are closer to therians than to monotremes,^{[1] [2] [3]} or that australosphenidans and therians are more closely related to each other than either are to shuotheres,^[4] with a 2024 study suggesting that shuotheriids were closely related to Docodonta outside of the Mammalia crown group.^[5]

Further reading

• Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, Richard L. Cifelli, and Zhe-Xi Luo, Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs: Origins, Evolution, and Structure (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 214–215.

Notes and References

1. Rougier, Guillermo W.; Martinelli, Agustín G.; Forasiepi, Analía M.; Novacek, Michael J., New Jurassic mammals from Patagonia, Argentina : a reappraisal of australosphenidan morphology and interrelationships ; American Museum Novitates, no. 3566, 2007
2. Tom Rich, Patricia Vickers Rich, Palaeobiogeography of Mesozoic Mammals – Revisited, Article · January 2012
3. Averianov . A. O. . Lopatin . A. V. . July 2014 . On the phylogenetic position of monotremes (Mammalia, Monotremata) . Paleontological Journal . 48 . 4 . 426–446 . 10.1134/s0031030114040042 . 0031-0301 . 84039223 . Scientific Index.
4. Ramírez-Chaves . Héctor E. . Weisbecker . Vera . Wroe . Stephen . Phillips . Matthew J. . December 2016 . Resolving the evolution of the mammalian middle ear using Bayesian inference . Frontiers in Zoology . en . 13 . 1 . 39 . 10.1186/s12983-016-0171-z . 1742-9994 . 4997658 . 27563341 . free .
5. Mao . Fangyuan . Li . Zhiyu . Wang . Zhili . Zhang . Chi . Rich . Thomas . Vickers-Rich . Patricia . Meng . Jin . 2024-04-03 . Jurassic shuotheriids show earliest dental diversification of mammaliaforms . Nature . en . 10.1038/s41586-024-07258-7 . 0028-0836.