Øystein Wiig

On the Relationship of Pinnipeds to Other Carnivores

The paper discusses Tedfords (1976) hypothesis concerning a sister‐group relationship of the otariids with the ursids and the phocids with the mustelids, based on a cladistic analysis. It is concluded that because Tedford has used at most branching points in his cladogram the opposite character states as synapomorphies as those used in the sister‐group, his hypothesis is put forward in conflict with the premises of the cladistic method. It must therefore be rejected.

Sex Identification in the Mink (Mustela vison Schreber) by Metrical Measurements of the Skull

The dental length and length of the first molar in the upper jaw of mink are characteristics used to estimate a discriminant function for sex identification of Norwegian populations. Reliability of the method is theoretically 93.2%.

Relationship of Nandinia binotata (Gray) to the Superfamily Feloidea (Mammalia, Carnivora)

The phylogenetic relationship between Nandinia binotata and Feloidea is analysed by the cladistic method, based on a literature review of osteological characters used in systematic works on carnivores for more than a century. The reduced or lost postglenoid foramen is a synapomorphy that define Nandinia and Feloidea as a monophyletic group. Nandinia does not have an ectotympanic septum in the bulla nor a paroccipital process nested with the posterior wall of the bulla, which are autapomorphies for the Feloidea. Thus it is hypothesized that Nandinia binotata has a sister‐group relation to Feloidea. The cartilaginous caudal entotympanic is an autapomorphy for Nandinia.