A new nomenclatural system for the study of sigmodontine rodent molars: first step towards an integrative phylogeny of fossil and living cricetids

We propose a new nomenclatural system to study the occlusal pattern in Sigmodontine (Rodentia: Cricetidae) molars. The proposal is based on the hypothesis that the occlusal pattern is best understood as the repetition of a single basic cuspal area. Cuspal areas on one side of the molar are a mirror image, partly rotated, of the cuspal areas on the other side. With this nomenclatural system, occlusal morphology is interpreted within a consistent...