University
of Cambridge > School of
Biological Sciences > Department of
Zoology > Mammal
group homepage
(Mammal group members in bold at time of writing)
2023
Bronner GN, Mynhardt S, Bennett NC, Cohen L,
Crumpton N, Hofreiter M, Arnold P, Asher RJ.
2023 In Press. Phylogenetic History of Golden Moles
and Tenrecs (Mammalia, Afrotheria). Zoological
Journal of the Linnean Society zlad
121. doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad121
Hautier L, Gomes-Rodrigues H, Ferreira-Cardoso S,
Emerling CA, Porcher ML, Asher RJ,
Portela-Miguez R, Delsuc F. 2023 In Press. From
teeth to pad: tooth loss and development of
keratinous structures in sirenians. Proceedings
of the Royal Society B 290:20231932
doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.1932
Christensen MM, Hallikas O, Roy RD, Väänänen V,
Stenberg OE, Häkkinen TJ, François JC, Asher RJ,
Klein OD, Holzenberger M, Jernvall J. 2023. The
developmental basis for scaling of mammalian tooth
size. Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences USA 120
(25) doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2300374120
2022
Asher RJ. 2022.
Navel gazing: A Review of WL Craig's
In Quest of the
Historical Adam. The
Times Literary Supplement 17
June 2022.
McKay
CJ, Welbourn-Green C, Seiffert ER, Sallam H,
Li J, Kakarala SE, Bennett NC, Asher RJ.
2022. Dental Development and First Premolar Homology
in Placental Mammals. Vertebrate
Zoology 72:201-218.
https://doi.org/10.3897/vz.72.e78234
Álvarez-Carretero S, Tamuri AU, Battini M,
Nascimento FF, Carlislie E, Asher RJ, Yang
Z, Donoghue PCJ, dos Reis M. 2022. A species-level
timeline of mammal evolution integrating
phylogenomic data. Nature
602, 263–267.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04341-1
Asher RJ, Smith MR. 2022.
Phylogenetic Signal and Bias in Paleontology. Systematic
Biology 71(4):986-1008. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syab072
2020
Rankin AH, Emry
RJ, Asher RJ. 2020.
Anatomical sciuromorphy in
"protrogomorph" rodents. Palaeontologica
Electronica 23(2):a25.
https://doi.org/10.26879/1049. See
also errata
Knight F, Connor C, Venkataramanan R, Asher
RJ. 2020. Body temperatures, life history, and
skeletal morphology in the nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus
novemcinctus). Peer Community In
Ecology 10.17863/CAM.50971. See also the PCI recommender
summary and reviews and Robert Asher's youtube
video describing the research.
Gomes-Rodrigues H, Tabuce
R, Asher RJ, Hautier L. 2020.
Developmental origins and homologies of
the hyracoid dentition. Evolution
& Development
22(4):323-335.
2019
Asher RJ.
2019. The origins of
Lissamphibia. Peer Community In
Paleontology
100002.
Asher RJ.
2019. Recent
additions to the
fossil record of
tenrecs and golden
moles. Afrotherian Conservation 15:4-13.
https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.87673
Asher RJ,
Smith MR, Rankin
A, Emry, RJ.
2019. Congruence,
fossils, and the
evolutionary tree of
rodents and
lagomorphs. Royal
Society Open
Science 6:
190387.
Geiger
M, Asher
RJ, 2019.
Schultz’s rule in
domesticated
mammals. Mammalian
Biology 98:36-42.
2018
Geiger
M, Marron S, West AR, Asher RJ.
2018. Influences of domestication and island
evolution on dental growth in sheep. J
Mammalian Evolution.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-018-9452-y
Asher RJ. 2018. Diversity and
Relationships within Crown Mammalia. pp.
301-351 in Zachos F and Asher RJ. Handbook of Zoology:
Mammalia. Berlin: Walter
deGruyter. Pre-production (and post
peer-review) version is available here.
Asher RJ. 2018. Taxonomy, Trees,
and Truth in Historical Mammalogy. pp. 39-58
in Zachos F and Asher RJ. Handbook
of Zoology: Mammalia. Berlin:
Walter deGruyter. Pre-production (and post
peer-review) version is available here.
2017
Carrillo
J, Asher RJ. 2017. An
exceptionally well preserved skeleton of Thomashuxleya
externa (Mammalia, Notoungulata), from
the Eocene of Patagonia, Argentina. Palaeontologica
Electronica 20.2.34A.
Asher
RJ, Gunnell GF, Seiffert ER, Pattinson
D, Tabuce R, Hautier L, Sallam HM. 2017.
Dental Eruption and Growth in Hyracoidea
(Mammalia, Afrotheria). Journal
of Vertebrate Paleontology
e1317638.
Davies
TG, Rahman IA, Lautenschlager S, Cunningham
JA, Asher RJ, Barrett PM, Bates KT,
Bengtson S, Benson RBJ, Boyer DM, Braga J,
Bright JA, Claessens LPAM, Cox PG, Dong XP,
Evans AR, Falkingham PL, Friedman M, Garwood
RJ, Goswami A, Hutchinson JR, Jeffery NS,
Johanson Z, Lebrun R, Martínez-Pérez C,
Marugán-Lobón J, O’Higgins
PM, Metscher B, Orliac M, Rowe TB, Rücklin
M, Sánchez-Villagra MR, Shubin NH, Smith SY,
Starck JM, Stringer C, Summers AP, Sutton
MD, Walsh SA, Weisbecker V, Witmer LM, Wroe
S, Yin Z, Rayfield EJ, Donoghue PCJ. 2017.
Open data and digital morphology. Proceedings
of the Royal Society B 284
(1852).
Thean
T, Kardjilov N, Asher RJ. 2017.
Inner
Ear Development in Cetaceans. Journal
of Anatomy 230(2):249-261 doi:10.1111/joa.12548.
2016
Bronner GN,
Asher RJ.
2016. A conservation
assessment of Cryptochloris
zyli, Cryptochloris
wintoni,
Chrysospalax
villosus,
Chrysospalax
trevelyani,
and Chrysochloris
asiatica.
In Child MF,
Roxburgh L, Do Linh
San E, Raimondo D,
Davies-Mostert HT,
editors. The Red
List of Mammals of
South Africa,
Swaziland and
Lesotho. South
African National
Biodiversity
Institute and
Endangered Wildlife
Trust, South Africa.
Hautier
L, Gomes-Rodrigues H, Billet G, Asher RJ.
2016. The hidden teeth of sloths:
evolutionary vestiges and the development of
a simplified dentition. Scientific
Reports 6:27763 (doi:10.1038/srep27763)
O'Meara RN,
Asher RJ. 2016. The evolution of growth
patterns in mammalian versus non-mammalian
cynodonts.
Paleobiology
42(3):439-464.
Brockelhurst
RJ, Crumpton N, Button E, Asher RJ
2016. Jaw anatomy of Potamogale velox (Tenrecidae,
Afrotheria) with a focus on cranial arteries and the
coronoid canal in mammals. PeerJ 4:e1906;
DOI 10.7717/peerj.1906.
Tarver JE, Dos Reis M,
Mirarab S, Moran RJ, Parker S, O'Reilly JE, King BL,
O'Connell MJ, Asher RJ, Warnow T, Peterson KJ,
Donoghue PC, Pisani D. 2016. The Interrelationships of Placental Mammals
and the Limits of Phylogenetic Inference. Genome
Biology and Evolution
8(2):330-344.
2015
Crumpton N,
Kardjilov N, Asher RJ.
2015. Convergence vs. Specialization in the Ear Region of
Moles (Mammalia). Journal of Morphology
276(8):900-914.
Pattinson DJ, Thompson RS, Piotrowski
A, Asher RJ. 2015.
Phylogeny, paleontology, and primates: do incomplete fossils
bias the tree of life? Systematic
Biology 64(2):169-186. See also media coverage of our
paper here.
Benton MJ, Donoghue PCJ, Asher
RJ, Friedman M, Near TJ, Vinther J. 2015.
Constraints on the timescale of animal evolutionary history.
Palaeontologica Electronica
18.1.1FC:1-106.
2014
Hautier L,
Charles C, Asher RJ,
Gaunt SJ. 2014. Ossification
sequence and genetic patterning in the mouse axial skeleton.
J
Exp Zool B Mol Dev Evol 322(8):631–642.
Storch G, Asher RJ. 2014. Six chapters on
Laurasiatheria, Macroscelida, Pholidota,
Placentalia, Tenrecoidea, and Xenarthra in
Westheide W, Rieger G. (Eds.). Spezielle Zoologie, Teil 2:
Wirbel- oder Schädeltiere. Springer-Spektrum
Akademischer Verlag. (In German)
2013
Hautier L, Bennet NC, Viljoen H, Howard L,
Milinkovitch MC, Tzika AC, Goswami A, Asher RJ. 2013. Patterns of
ossification in southern versus northern placental mammals.
Evolution
67(7): 1994-2010.
Werneburg I, Tzika AC, Hautier L, Asher RJ, Milinkovitch MC,
Sánchez-Villagra MR. 2013. Development and embryonic staging
in non-model organisms: the case of an afrotherian mammal. Journal
of
Anatomy 222(1):2-18.
2012
Thompson RS, Bärmann EV, Asher RJ. 2012.
The
Interpretation of Hidden Support in Combined Data
Phylogenetics. Journal
of
Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research
50(4):251–263.
Billet
G, Hautier L, Asher RJ,
Schwarz C, Crumpton N,
Martin T, Ruf I. 2012. High morphological
variation of vestibular system accompanies slow and
infrequent locomotion in three-toed sloths. Proceedings
of
the Royal Society B 279(1744):3932-3939. See also
coverage in Science,
Nature, Huffington Post,
Why
Evolution
Is True, and on our own Nick Crumpton's Tumblr
page.
Asher RJ, Müller J.
2012. Molecular Tools in Paleobiology: Divergence and
Mechanisms. pp. 1-15 in Asher
RJ, Müller J (Eds). From
Clone
to Bone: The Synergy of Morphological and Molecular
Tools in Palaeobiology. Cambridge University
Press.
Asher RJ, Müller J
(Eds). 2012. From
Clone
to Bone: The Synergy of Morphological and Molecular
Tools in Palaeobiology. Cambridge University
Press.
Asher RJ. 2012.
Evolutionary Biology and Scepticism: the Reception of
Darwinism in 19th Century German Embryology. pp. 71-86 In
Calne R, O'Reilly W. (Eds.) Scepticism: Hero and Villain.
NOVA publishers.
Pointer MA, Kamilar JM, Warmuth
V, Chester SGB, Delsuc F, Mundy NI, Asher RJ, Bradley BJ.
2012. RUNX2 tandem repeats and the evolution of facial
length in placental mammals. BMC
Evolutionary
Biology 12:103.
Dos Reis M, Inoue J, Hasegawa M, Asher RJ, Donoghue PCJ,
Yang Z. 2012. Phylogenomic datasets provide both precision
and accuracy in estimating the timescale of placental mammal
phylogeny. Proceedings
of
the Royal Society B 279(1742):3491-3500.
Asher RJ. 2012. Evolution
and
Belief: Confessions of a Religious Paleontologist.
Cambridge University Press.
Hautier L,
Stansfield FJ, Allen WR, Asher
RJ. 2012. Skeletal development in the African
elephant and ossification timing in placental mammals. Proceedings
of
the Royal Society B 279(1736):2188-2195. See also
coverage on wired
science.
Ciancio MR, Castro MC, Galliari FC,
Carlini AA, Asher RJ.
2012. Evolutionary Implications of Dental Eruption in Dasypus (Xenarthra). Journal
of Mammalian Evolution 19:1-8.
Weisbecker V, Hautier L,
Asher RJ. 2012. Faultiere, Seekühe und die
Siebener-Regel der Halswirbelsäule. Naturwissenschaftliche
Rundschau 65(1):38.
Asher RJ. 2012.
Review of Darwin's Pious
Idea by Conor Cunningham. Theology 115(1):
70-72.
2011
Asher RJ, Helgen KM.
2011. High level Mammalian taxonomy: a response to Hedges
(2011). Zootaxa
3092: 63–64.
Hautier LJ, Weisbecker V,
Goswami A, Knight F, Kardjilov N, Asher RJ. 2011. Skeletal ossification and sequence
heterochrony in xenarthran evolution. Evolution
&
Development 13(5):460–476.
Asher
RJ, Lin KH,
Kardjilov N, Hautier LJ.
2011. Variability and constraint in the mammalian vertebral
column. Journal
of
Evolutionary Biology 24(5): 1080-1090.
2010
Hautier
LJ, Weisbecker V, Sánchez-Villagra MR, Goswami A, Asher RJ. 2010. Skeletal
development in sloths and the evolution of mammalian vertebral
patterning. Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences USA 107(44):18903-18908.
See also coverage on the NY
times, Science
Daily, MSNBC,
and Berliner
Zeitung.
Asher
RJ, Helgen KM. 2010. Nomenclature and placental mammal
phylogeny. BMC
Evolutionary
Biology 10:102.
Asher
RJ, Maree S, Bronner G, Bennett NC, Bloomer P, Czechowski
P, Meyer M, Hofreiter M. 2010. A phylogenetic estimate for golden
moles (Mammalia, Afrotheria, Chrysochloridae). BMC
Evolutionary Biology 10:69.
Asher RJ, Avery DM. 2010.
New golden moles (Afrotheria, Chrysochloridae) from the Pliocene
of South Africa. Palaeontologica
Electronica 13(1):3A.
Asher RJ, Seiffert ER. 2010.
Systematics of Endemic African Mammals, in Cenozoic Mammals of Africa,
Werdelin L and Sanders W (Eds.). University of California Press.
Asher
RJ. 2010. Tenrecoidea, in Cenozoic Mammals of Africa,
Werdelin L and Sanders W (Eds.). University of California Press.
2009
Wible JR , Rougier GW, Novacek MJ, Asher RJ. 2009.
The eutherian mammal Maelestes
gobiensis from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia and the
phylogeny of Cretaceous Eutheria. Bulletin
of
the American Museum of Natural History 327:1-123.
Asher RJ, Bennett N, Lehmann T. 2009. The new
framework for understanding placental mammal evolution. Bioessays
31(8): 853-864.
Asher RJ, Olbricht G. 2009.
Dental ontogeny in Macroscelides
proboscideus (Afrotheria) and Erinaceus europaeus (Lipotyphla).
Journal
of
Mammalian Evolution 16:99-115.
Benton MJ, Donoghue PCJ, Asher RJ. 2009. Calibrating
and constraining molecular clocks. pp. 35-86 in Hedges SB and
Kumar S. (Eds.) The
Timetree of Life. Oxford University Press.
2008
Ladevèze S, Asher RJ, Sanchez-Villagra MR.
2008. Petrosal anatomy in the fossil mammal Necrolestes: evidence for
metatherian affinities and comparisons with the extant marsupial
mole. J
Anatomy 213:686-697.
Asher
RJ, Lehmann T.
2008. Dental eruption in afrotherian mammals. BMC
Biology 6:14.
Asher
RJ, Geisler J, Sánchez-Villagra MR. 2008. Morphology,
paleontology, and placental mammal phylogeny. Systematic
Biology 57(2):311–317.
Tabuce R, Asher RJ, Lehmann
T. 2008. Afrotherian mammals: a review of current data. Mammalia
72: 2-14.
2007
Asher RJ. 2007. A database of morphological characters
and a combined-data reanalysis of placental mammal
phylogeny. BMC
Evolutionary
Biology 7:108.
Wible
JW, Rougier GW, Novacek MJ, Asher RJ. 2007. Cretaceous Eutherians and Laurasian
Origin for Placental Mammals near K/T Boundary. Nature
447:1003-1006. See also coverage from a nature
podcast and the Pittsburgh
Post
Gazette .
Sánchez-Villagra
MR, Ladevèze S, Horovitz I, Argot C, Hooker JJ, Macrini
TE, Martin T, Moore-Fay S, deMuizon C, Schmelzle T, Asher
RJ. 2007. Exceptionally preserved North
American Paleogene metatherians: adaptations and discovery
of a major gap in the opossum fossil record. Biology
Letters 3(3):318-322.
Turni H, Hutterer R, Asher RJ. 2007. Type specimens of "insectivoran"
mammals at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin. Zootaxa 1470: 1-33.
Asher RJ. 2007.
African Mammals. pp. 1-3 in McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science &
Technology. New York.
Asher RJ, Horovitz I, Martin T, and Sánchez-Villagra
MR. 2007. Neither a rodent nor a platypus: a
reexamination of Necrolestes
patagonensis Ameghino.
American Museum Novitates 3546:1-40.
2006
Masters JC, de Wit MJ, and Asher RJ. 2006. Reconciling the Births of Africa, India
and Madagascar with Vertebrate Dispersal Scenarios. Folia Primatologica 77:399-418.
Asher
RJ, Hofreiter M. 2006. Tenrecid
phylogeny and the noninvasive extraction of nuclear DNA.
Systematic Biology (cover article) 55(2):181-194.
2005
Asher RJ, Emry RJ, McKenna MC. 2005. New material of Centetodon (Mammalia, Lipotyphla) and the importance of
(missing) DNA sequences in systematic paleontology. Journal
of Vertebrate Paleontology 25(4):911–923.
Asher
RJ, Meng J, Wible JR, McKenna MC,
Rougier GW, Dashzeveg D, Novacek MJ. 2005. Stem
Lagomorpha and the Antiquity of Glires. Science 307 (5712): 1091-1094. See also coverage from
the BBC,
NY
Times, Berliner
Zeitung and Geo
Magazin,
Asher
RJ, Sánchez-Villagra MR. 2005.
Locking yourself out: zalambdodonty as a key adaptation.
In Polly D and Luo Z-X (Eds.) Festschrift in honor of
Dr. W. Clemens, Journal of Mammalian Evolution 12 (1/2): 265-282.
Asher
RJ. 2005. Insectivoran grade
placental mammals: character evolution and fossil
history. pp. 50-70 in Rose KD and Archibald D (Eds.) The Rise of Placental Mammals: Origin and
Relationships of the Major Clades, Johns Hopkins University Press.
2004
Asher
RJ, Horovitz I, Sánchez-Villagra MR.
2004. First Combined Cladistic Analysis of Marsupial
Mammal Interrelationships. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 33: 240-250.
Sánchez-Villagra MR, Asher RJ, Rincón AD, Carlini AA, Meylan P, Purdy R.
2004. Description of a novel vertebrate assemblage from
the Cerro la Cruz locality (lower Miocene), northwestern
Venezuela. In Sánchez-Villagra MR and Clack JA (eds).
Fossils of the Castillo Formation, Venezuela:
Contributions in Neotropical Palaeontology. Special
Papers in Palaeontology 71:105-112.
2003
Asher
RJ, Novacek MJ, Geisler JG. 2003.
Relationships of Endemic African Mammals and their
Fossil Relatives based on Morphological and Molecular
Evidence. Journal of Mammalian Evolution 10: 131-194.
Asher
RJ. 2003. Tenrecid phylogeny: a
response to Douady et al. (2002). Molecular
Phylogenetics and Evolution 26: 328-330.
2002
Asher RJ, McKenna MC, Emry RJ, Tabrum AR, Kron DG.
2002. Morphology and Relationships of Apternodus and Other Extinct, Zalambdodont, Placental
Mammals. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural
History 243: 117 pp.
Sánchez-Villagra MR, Asher RJ. 2002. Cranio-sensory adaptations in small,
faunivorous mammals, with special reference to olfaction
and the trigeminal system. Mammalia 66(1): 93-109.
2001
Asher
RJ. 2001. Cranial anatomy in tenrecid
insectivorans: character evolution across competing
phylogenies. American
Museum
Novitates 3352: 54 pp.
Whidden HP, Asher RJ. 2001. Origin of the Greater Antillean
insectivorans. pp. 237-252 in Woods CA, Sergile FE
(eds). West Indian Biogeography. CRC Press, Boca Raton,
FL.
2000
Asher
RJ. 2000. Phylogenetic History of
Tenrecs and Other Insectivoran Mammals. Ph.D.
Dissertation, State University of New York, Stony Brook.
Advised by Drs. Callum Ross, Ross MacPhee, David Krause,
Malcolm McKenna, and Marc Allard.
1999
Asher
RJ. 1999. A morphological basis for
assessing the phylogeny of the "Tenrecoidea" (Mammalia,
Lipotyphla). Cladistics 15(3): 231-252.
Asher RJ. 1999.
Minor placental orders of small body size. pp. 913-915
in Singer R (Ed.) Encyclopedia
of Paleontology Fitzroy-Dearborn: Chicago.
1998
Asher
RJ, Krause DW. 1998. The first
pre-Holocene record of Anura from Madagascar. Journal
of
Vertebrate Paleontology 18(4): 696-699.
Asher
RJ. 1998. Morphological diversity of
anatomical strepsirrhinism and the evolution of the
lemuriform toothcomb. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 105: 355-367.