Lost World of Metatherians

[Ian Thomas]

This is interesting. Looks like the KT event took out most metatherian mammals that were around in the cretaceous. so today marsupials are uncommon.

Asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs may have nearly knocked off mammals, too
www.geologypage.com/2014/12/asteroid-that-wiped-out-dinosaurs-may.html

The origin and early evolution of metatherian mammals: the Cretaceous record
zookeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=4342

[johannes]

On the question wether Stagodontids were carnivorous or clam eaters: Are those alternatives really mutually exclusive? Maybe stagos did both things; going for terrestrial prey during nesting season when the landscape was full of hatchling and baby dinosaurs, and returning to the water to eat bivalves and turtles (remember the Masstrichtian and the early PG were the golden age of turtles) when the nesting season was over? Real animals are often far more versatile than their anatomy suggests, Sea Leopards filter krill and prey on Wedell Seals, Tamanduas eat ants and suck marrow from bones etc.
antediluviansalad.blogspot.de/2014/06/lessons-from-leopard-seal.html

[johannes]

Another biggish (= cat-sized) predatory metatherian fro the K: peerj.com/articles/896/

Note the cladistic tree in the link: they find the Gurlin Tsav animal (a rather charismatic beast known from a reasonably complete skull, and it has been around for decades! Why on earth has nobody described and named it yet? ) closer to the Neogene Sparassodonts of South America than to Stagodontids.