Epipubic bone

Skeleton of eastern grey kangaroo hind legs. Epipubic bones labeled as 10
Skeleton of a red-necked wallaby, centered on the epipubic bones.

Epipubic bones are a pair of bones projecting forward from the pelvic bones of modern marsupials, monotremes and fossil mammals like multituberculates, and even basal eutherians (the ancestors of placental mammals, who lack them).[1] They first occur in non-mammalian cynodonts such as tritylodontids, suggesting that they are a synapomorphy between them and Mammaliformes.

They were first described as early as 1698, but to date, their function(s) remain unresolved.[2] Epipubic bones are often called marsupial bones because they support the mother's pouch in modern marsupials ("marsupium" is Latin for "pouch").[3]

  1. ^ Novacek, M.J.; Rougier, G.W.; Wible, J.R.; McKenna, M.C.; Dashzeveg, D.; Horovitz, I. (1997). "Epipubic bones in eutherian mammals from the late Cretaceous of Mongolia". Nature. 389 (6650): 440–1. Bibcode:1997Natur.389..483N. doi:10.1038/39020. PMID 9333234. S2CID 205026882.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Reilly-White-2003-01-17 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference White-1989 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).