Tiny Early Cretaceous Ambolestes now nests with extant Nasua, the coatimundi
This pairing escaped notice until yesterday.
Ambolestes (Fig 1) is a tiny Early Cretaceous marsupial. Nasua (Fig 1) is the much larger extant coatimundi.
Figure 1. Nasua, the extant coatimundi, compared to tiny Early Cretaceous Ambolestes, a placental1 taxon.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/nasua_coati_skull588.jpg?w=123″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/nasua_coati_skull588.jpg?w=420″ class=”size-full wp-image-92472″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/nasua_coati_skull588.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Nasua, the extant coatimundi, compared to tiny Early Cretaceous Ambolestes, a placental1 taxon.” width=”584″ height=”1423″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/nasua_coati_skull588.jpg?w=584&h=1423 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/nasua_coati_skull588.jpg?w=62&h=150 62w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/nasua_coati_skull588.jpg?w=123&h=300 123w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/nasua_coati_skull588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. Nasua, the extant coatimundi, compared to tiny Early Cretaceous Ambolestes, a placental1 taxon.
Now these two nest together
in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2338 taxa). Nasua has always nested at the base of the Placentalia1 clade. This novel pairing pushes the origin of the Placentalia1 clade back to at least the Early Cretaceous. By comparison…
The Placentalia2 clade includes Early Jurassic multituberculates.
Figure 1. Ambolestes tracing from Bi et al. 2018.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ambolestes-zhoui_insitu.gif?w=197″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ambolestes-zhoui_insitu.gif?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-31535″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ambolestes-zhoui_insitu.gif” alt=”Figure 1. Ambolestes tracing from Bi et al. 2018.” width=”584″ height=”888″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ambolestes-zhoui_insitu.gif?w=584&h=888 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ambolestes-zhoui_insitu.gif?w=99&h=150 99w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ambolestes-zhoui_insitu.gif?w=197&h=300 197w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ambolestes-zhoui_insitu.gif 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 2. Ambolestes tracing from Bi et al. 2018. Here the part and counterpart are matched. Seems to have had a naked tail.
Ambolestes zhoui
(Bi et al. 2018, Early Cretaceous, 126 mya; 25cm in length) is is one third the size of the extant opossum, Didelphis. Co-author Bi said in an interview, “Ambolestes zhoui is an early member of the placental lineage. It also carries mixed features both placentals and marsupials”.
That is supported and confirmed by the LRT.
Figure 1. The coatimundi (Nasua) compared to the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur).
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/coatimundi_lemur_invivo588.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/coatimundi_lemur_invivo588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-53307″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/coatimundi_lemur_invivo588.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. The coatimundi (Nasua) compared to the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur).” width=”584″ height=”418″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/coatimundi_lemur_invivo588.jpg?w=584&h=418 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/coatimundi_lemur_invivo588.jpg?w=150&h=107 150w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/coatimundi_lemur_invivo588.jpg?w=300&h=215 300w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/coatimundi_lemur_invivo588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 3. The coatimundi (Nasua) compared to the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur).
Wikipedia – Ambolestes reports,
“According to a phylogenetic analysis by Bi et al. (2018), Ambolestes forms a small clade with Montanalestes, Acristatherium, and Sinodelphys at the base of Eutheria.”
In the LRT Montanalestes is known only from teeth, so not tested. Acristatherium is a basal marsupial. Sinodelphys is a basal monotreme. Bi et al did not test Nasua.
This appears to be a novel hypothesis of interrelationships.
If not, please provide a citation so I can promote it here.
References
Bi S-B, Zheng X-T, X, Wang X-L, Cignetti N-E, Yang SL and Wible JR 2018. An Early Cretaceous eutherian and the placental/marsupial dichotomy. Nature (advance online publication) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0210-3
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0210-3
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/04/19/tiny-early-cretaceous-ambolestes-now-nests-with-extant-nasua-the-coatimundi/
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