Anagaloidea is a former order of extinct

placental mammal Placental mammals ( infraclass Placentalia ) are one of the three extant subdivisions of the class Mammalia, the other two being Monotremata and Marsupialia. Placentalia contains the vast majority of extant mammals, which are partly distinguish ...

s that first appeared during the

Paleocene The Paleocene ( ), or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), ...

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided b ...

Taxonomy

According to the traditional (morphological) view, Anagaloidea is part of the superorder Anagalida, along with the

elephant shrew Elephant shrews, also called jumping shrews or sengis, are small insectivore, insectivorous mammals native to Africa, belonging to the family Macroscelididae, in the order (biology), order Macroscelidea. Their traditional common English name "ele ...

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...

s and

lagomorph The lagomorphs () are the members of the taxonomic order Lagomorpha, of which there are two living families: the Leporidae (rabbits and hares) and the Ochotonidae ( pikas). There are 110 recent species of lagomorph, of which 109 species in t ...

s. However, the Anagalida are considered to be

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

. Genetic studies have shown that the elephant shrews are actually part of a different macro-group of mammals called the

Afrotheria Afrotheria ( from Latin ''Afro-'' "of Africa" + ''theria'' "wild beast") is a superorder of placental mammals, the living members of which belong to groups that are either currently living in Africa or of African origin: golden moles, elephan ...

, 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

Eutheria Eutheria (from Greek , 'good, right' and , 'beast'; ), also called Pan-Placentalia, is the clade consisting of Placentalia, placental mammals and all therian mammals that are more closely related to placentals than to marsupials. Eutherians ...

ns and might not even be true Eutherians at all. The Anagalidae and the Pseudictopidae probably represent a genuine

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 t ...

. 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 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 morph ...

, often grouped with the

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" (mea ...

to form the superorder

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 ...

Classification

*Superorder Anagalida * **Order Anagaloidea ***Family Anagalidae ****Genus '' Anagale'' ***Family Pseudictopidae ***Family Astigalidae? **Family Zalambdalestidae? ***Genus '' Zalambdalestes''

References

Glires Cretaceous mammals Mammal orders Prehistoric tetrapod orders {{cretaceous-mammal-stub