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Anagaloidea
Anagaloidea is a former order of extinct placental mammals that first appeared during the Paleocene epoch. Taxonomy According to the traditional (morphological) view, Anagaloidea is part of the superorder Anagalida, along with the elephant shrews, rodents and lagomorphs. However, the Anagalida are considered to be polyphyletic. Genetic studies have shown that the elephant shrews are actually part of a different macro-group of mammals called the Afrotheria, while the position of several extinct families of Anagalida is uncertain. The Zalambdalestidae are almost certainly unrelated to any of these groups; they probably represent more basal Eutherians and might not even be true Eutherians at all. The Anagalidae and the Pseudictopidae probably represent a genuine clade. This clade is known as the Anagaloidea, which seems to be related to the rodents and lagomorphs after all. Together they form the clade Glires, often grouped with the Euarchonta to form the superorder Euarchontogl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anagale Gobiensis
''Anagale'' is an extinct genus of mammal from the early Oligocene of Mongolia. Its closest living relatives are the rodents and lagomorphs. ''Anagale'' was 30 cm (1 ft) long and resembled a rabbit, but with a longer tail. Also, the build of its hind legs indicates that it walked, and did not hop. Judging from its shovel-shaped claws, ''Anagale'' burrowed for food, such as subterranean beetles and worms. ''Anagale'' fossils have strongly worn teeth from eating soil, further indicating it ate subterranean invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...s. References Anagaloidea Prehistoric placental genera Oligocene mammals of Asia Fossil taxa described in 1931 {{paleo-mammal-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anagalidae
Anagalidae is an extinct family of mammals closely related to rodents and lagomorphs. Members of the family are known from Paleocene to Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ... deposits in China and Mongolia. Genera The family contains the following genera: * '' Anagale'' * '' Anagalopsis'' * '' Anaptogale'' * '' Chianshania'' * '' Diacronus'' * '' Eosigale'' * '' Hsiuannania'' * '' Huaiyangale'' * '' Interogale'' * '' Linnania'' * '' Qipania'' * '' Stenanagale'' * '' Wanogale'' * '' Zofiagale'' References Anagaloidea Prehistoric mammal families Paleocene first appearances Oligocene extinctions Taxa named by George Gaylord Simpson {{Paleo-mammal-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudictopidae
Pseudictopidae is an extinct family of mammals closely related to rodents and lagomorphs. Members of the family are known from Paleocene to Eocene deposits in China and Mongolia. Taxonomic history The family Pseudictopidae was erected in 1969 by Andrez Sulimsky as a monotypic family, with ''Pseudictops'' as the type and only genus, though later authors would assign more genera to the family. Sulimsky tentatively assigned Pseudictopidae to Eutheria ''incertae sedis'', believing that it and Anagalidae were representatives of an unknown order. In 1971, Szalay and McKenna erected the order Anagalida, to which Pseudictopidae was assigned. References Anagaloidea Prehistoric mammal families Paleocene first appearances Eocene extinctions {{Paleo-mammal-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anagale
''Anagale'' is an extinct genus of mammal from the early Oligocene of Mongolia. Its closest living relatives are the rodents and lagomorphs. ''Anagale'' was 30 cm (1 ft) long and resembled a rabbit, but with a longer tail. Also, the build of its hind legs indicates that it walked, and did not hop. Judging from its shovel-shaped claws, ''Anagale'' burrowed for food, such as subterranean beetles and worms. ''Anagale'' fossils have strongly worn teeth from eating soil, further indicating it ate subterranean invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...s. References Anagaloidea Prehistoric placental genera Oligocene mammals of Asia Fossil taxa described in 1931 {{paleo-mammal-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euarchontoglires
Euarchontoglires (from: '' Euarchonta'' ("true rulers") + '' Glires'' ("dormice")), synonymous with Supraprimates, is a clade and a superorder of placental mammals, the living members of which belong to one of the five following groups: rodents, lagomorphs, treeshrews, primates, and colugos. Evolutionary affinities within mammals The Euarchontoglires clade is based on DNA sequence analyses and retrotransposon markers that combine the clades Glires (Rodentia + Lagomorpha) and Euarchonta (Scandentia + Primates + Dermoptera). It is usually discussed without a taxonomic rank but has been called a cohort, magnorder, or superorder. Relations among the four cohorts (Euarchontoglires, Xenarthra, Laurasiatheria, Afrotheria) and the identity of the placental root remain controversial. So far, few, if any, distinctive anatomical features have been recognized that support Euarchontoglires; nor does any strong evidence from anatomy support alternative hypotheses. Although both Eu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cretaceous Mammals
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ninth and longest geological period of the entire Phanerozoic. The name is derived from the Latin , 'chalk', which is abundant in the latter half of the period. It is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation . The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now-extinct marine reptiles, ammonites, and rudists, while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land. The world was largely ice-free, although there is some evidence of brief periods of glaciation during the cooler first half, and forests extended to the poles. Many of the dominant taxonomic groups present in modern times can be ultimately traced back to origins in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zalambdalestes
''Zalambdalestes'' (meaning ''much-like-lambda robber'') is an extinct genus of eutherian mammal known from the Upper Cretaceous in Mongolia. Description ''Zalambdalestes'' was a hopping animal with a long snout, long teeth, a small brain and large eyes. It was about long, with a head only long. It had strong front paws and even stronger rear ones, sharing specializations to saltation similar to those of modern rabbits. It was most likely not a placental due to the presence of an epipubic bone, It had a unique axis that allowed for rapid movements, and in life it might have had spines or bristly fur. Biology Its diet was probably composed mainly of insects that it hunted in the forest undergrowth using its sharp, interlocking teeth. A well-preserved series of cervical vertebrae, including the axis, but not the atlas, seem to suggest vermivory. Unlike modern placental mammals, ''Zalambdalestes'' had an epipubic bone, meaning it was probably restricted reproductively in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paraphyletic
Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In contrast, a monophyletic grouping (a clade) includes a common ancestor and ''all'' of its descendants. The terms are commonly used in phylogenetics (a subfield of biology) and in the tree model of historical linguistics. Paraphyletic groups are identified by a combination of synapomorphies and symplesiomorphies. If many subgroups are missing from the named group, it is said to be polyparaphyletic. The term received currency during the debates of the 1960s and 1970s accompanying the rise of cladistics, having been coined by zoologist Willi Hennig to apply to well-known taxa like Reptilia (reptiles), which is paraphyletic with respect to birds. Reptilia contains the last common ancestor of reptiles and all descendants of that ancestor exc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euarchonta
The Euarchonta are a proposed grandorder of mammals: the order Scandentia (treeshrews), and its sister Primatomorpha mirorder, containing the Dermoptera (colugos) and the primates (Plesiadapiformes and descendants). The term "Euarchonta" (meaning "true rulers") appeared in 1999, when molecular evidence suggested that the morphology-based Archonta should be trimmed down to exclude Chiroptera. Further DNA sequence analyses supported the Euarchonta hypothesis. Despite multiple papers pointing out that some mitochondrial sequences showed unusual properties (particularly murid rodents and hedgehogs) and were likely distorting the overall tree, and despite earlier studies showing near total congruence of mtDNA-based and nuclear-based trees when such sequences were excluded, some authors continued to produce misleading trees. A study investigating retrotransposon presence/absence data has claimed strong support for Euarchonta. Some interpretations of the molecular data link Primates ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glires
Glires (, Latin ''glīrēs'' 'dormice') is a clade (sometimes ranked as a grandorder) consisting of rodents and lagomorphs ( rabbits, hares, and pikas). The hypothesis that these form a monophyletic group has been long debated based on morphological evidence. Two morphological studies, published in 2001 and 2003, strongly support the monophyly of Glires. In particular, the 2003 study reported the discovery of fossil material of basal members of Glires, particularly the genera '' Mimotona'', '' Gomphos'', '' Heomys'', '' Matutinia'', '' Rhombomylus'', and '' Sinomylus''. Their description, in 2005, helped to bridge the gap between more typical rodents and lagomorphs. Data published in 2001, based on nuclear DNA, supported Glires as a sister of Euarchonta to form Euarchontoglires, but some genetic data from both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clade
In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach to taxonomy adopted by most biological fields. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population, or a species (extinct or Extant taxon, extant). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed ''monophyletic'' (Greek: "one clan") groups. Over the last few decades, the cladistic approach has revolutionized biological classification and revealed surprising evolutionary relationships among organisms. Increasingly, taxonomists try to avoid naming Taxon, taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not Monophyly, monophyletic. Some of the relationships between organisms that the molecul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
