[Taxacom] a parasite-host pair which survived the end-Cretaceousextinction

[John Grehan]

The final question in that link was:

So extant memers of Rhyncophthirina are ectoparasites of large,
thick-skinned, sparsely-haired mammals - and these lice have
adaptations to suit.  But if the Rhyncophthirina have been around as
long as the Anoplura... what were their hosts during the Cretaceous?

The obvious answer might be - their Cretaceous ancestors. Of course they may not have been so large, thick skinned, and sparsely haired. But there is such a thing as evolution.

John Grehan



-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Kenneth Kinman
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2011 11:52 PM
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: [Taxacom] a parasite-host pair which survived the end-Cretaceousextinction

Dear All, 
      Here is an interesting evolutionary question posed on
DML (Dinosaur Mailing List), not about dinosaurs, but actually about
lice on early mammals. I suspect the host in question was probably a
relatively early (Upper Cretaceous) member of clade Afrotheria which had
already evolved relatively thick skin and that these lice later got
transferred from primitive elephants (or their relatives) to wart-hogs
during the Cenozoic (once wart-hogs had evolved).     
         The question is what was the nature of the
Cretaceous afrotherian which survived the end-Cretaceous extinction
event and carried those specialized lice with them.  Perhaps it was the
immediate ancestor of the Paleocene genus Eritherium (earliest known
elephant ancestor, which was only recently described in 2009 in PNAS)?
Or did other early afrotherian taxa (with relatively thick skin) exist
in the Upper Cretaceous that could have played such a role and survived
the end-Cretaceous extinction event?  
             --------Ken Kinman

http://dml.cmnh.org/2011Apr/msg00079.html 

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