Mammalia Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fu ...

is a class of animal within the phylum

Chordata A chordate () is an animal of the phylum Chordata (). All chordates possess, at some point during their larval or adult stages, five synapomorphies, or primary physical characteristics, that distinguish them from all the other taxa. These five ...

. Mammal classification has been through several iterations since

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

initially defined the class. No classification system is universally accepted; McKenna & Bell (1997) and Wilson & Reader (2005) provide useful recent compendiums. Many earlier ideas from Linnaeus et al. have been completely abandoned by modern taxonomists, among these are the idea that bats are related to

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s or that

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

s represent a group outside of other living things. Competing ideas about the relationships of mammal orders do persist and are currently in development. Most significantly in recent years,

cladistic Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived ch ...

thinking has led to an effort to ensure that all taxonomic designations represent

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...

groups. The field has also seen a recent surge in interest and modification due to the results of

molecular phylogenetics Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

George Gaylord Simpson George Gaylord Simpson (June 16, 1902 – October 6, 1984) was an American paleontologist. Simpson was perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century, and a major participant in the modern synthesis, contributing '' Tempo ...

's classic "Principles of Classification and a Classification of Mammals" ( Simpson, 1945)

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

text laid out a

systematics Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: cladograms, phylogenetic t ...

of mammal origins and relationships that was universally taught until the end of the 20th century. Since Simpson's 1945

classification Classification is a process related to categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood. Classification is the grouping of related facts into classes. It may also refer to: Business, organizat ...

, the paleontological record has been recalibrated, and the intervening years have seen much debate and progress concerning the theoretical underpinnings of systematization itself, partly through the new concept of

cladistics Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived ch ...

. Though field work gradually made Simpson's classification outdated, it remained the closest thing to an official classification of mammals. See List of placental mammals and

List of monotremes and marsupials The class Mammalia ( mammals) is divided into two subclasses based on reproductive techniques: egg-laying mammals ( yinotherians or monotremes - see also Australosphenida), and mammals which give live birth (therians). The latter subclass is divid ...

for more detailed information on mammal genera and species.

Molecular classification of placentals

Molecular studies by molecular systematists, based on DNA analysis, in the early 21st century have revealed new relationships among mammal families. Classification systems based on molecular studies reveal three major groups or lineages of

placental 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 distinguishe ...

mammals,

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

Xenarthra Xenarthra (; from Ancient Greek ξένος, xénos, "foreign, alien" + ἄρθρον, árthron, "joint") is a major clade of placental mammals native to the Americas. There are 31 living species: the anteaters, tree sloths, and armadillos. Ex ...

, and

Boreotheria Boreoeutheria (, "northern true beasts") is a magnorder of placental mammals that groups together superorders Euarchontoglires and Laurasiatheria. With a few exceptionsExceptional clades whose males lack the usual boreoeutherian scrotum are mole ...

. which diverged from early common ancestors in the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

. The relationships between these three lineages is contentious, and all three have been proposed as basal in different hypotheses. The following taxonomy only includes living placentals (infraclass

Eutheria Eutheria (; from Greek , 'good, right' and , 'beast'; ) is the clade consisting of all therian mammals that are more closely related to placentals than to marsupials. Eutherians are distinguished from noneutherians by various phenotypic t ...

Atlantogenata Atlantogenata is a proposed clade of mammals containing the cohorts or superorders Xenarthra and Afrotheria. These groups originated and radiated in the South American and African continents, respectively, presumably in the Cretaceous. Togeth ...

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

*Class

Afroinsectiphilia The Afroinsectiphilia (African insectivores) is a clade that has been proposed based on the results of recent molecular phylogenetic studies. Many of the taxa within it were once regarded as part of the order Insectivora, but Insectivora is now ...

**Order Macroscelidea ***Family Macroscelididae: (20 species), sengis or elephant shrews (Africa) **Order

Afrosoricida The order Afrosoricida (a Latin-Greek compound name which means "looking like African shrews") contains the golden moles of Southern Africa, the otter shrews of equatorial Africa and the tenrecs of Madagascar. These three families of small m ...

***Family Tenrecidae: (31 species), tenrecs (Madagascar) ***Family

Potamogalidae Potamogalidae is the family of "otter shrews", a group of semiaquatic riverine afrotherian mammals indigenous to sub-Saharan Africa. They are most closely related to the tenrecs of Madagascar, from which they are thought to have split about 4 ...

: (3 species), otter-shrews (West and Central Africa) ***Family

Chrysochloridae Golden moles are small insectivorous burrowing mammals endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa. They comprise the family Chrysochloridae and as such they are taxonomically distinct from the true moles, family Talpidae, and other mole-like families, a ...

: (21 species), golden moles (Africa south of the Sahara) **Order

Tubulidentata Orycteropodidae is a family of afrotherian mammals. Although there are many fossil species, the only species surviving today is the aardvark, ''Orycteropus afer''. Orycteropodidae is recognized as the only family within the order Tubulidentata ...

***Family

Orycteropodidae Orycteropodidae is a family of afrotherian mammals. Although there are many fossil species, the only species surviving today is the aardvark, ''Orycteropus afer''. Orycteropodidae is recognized as the only family within the order Tubulidentata ...

: (1 species), aardvark (Africa south of the Sahara) *Class

Paenungulata Paenungulata (from Latin ''paene'' "almost" + ''ungulātus'' "having hoofs") is a clade of "sub-ungulates", which groups three extant mammal orders: Proboscidea (including elephants), Sirenia (sea cows, including dugongs and manatees), and Hyraco ...

**Order

Proboscidea The Proboscidea (; , ) are a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family ( Elephantidae) and several extinct families. First described by J. Illiger in 1811, it encompasses the elephants and their close relatives. Fr ...

***Family

Elephantidae Elephantidae is a family of large, herbivorous proboscidean mammals collectively called elephants and mammoths. These are terrestrial large mammals with a snout modified into a trunk and teeth modified into tusks. Most genera and species in the ...

: (3 species), elephants (Africa, Southeast Asia) **Order

Hyracoidea Hyraxes (), also called dassies, are small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. Hyraxes are well-furred, rotund animals with short tails. Typically, they measure between long and weigh between . They are superficially simil ...

***Family

Procaviidae Hyraxes (), also called dassies, are small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. Hyraxes are well-furred, rotund animals with short tails. Typically, they measure between long and weigh between . They are superficially simila ...

: (4 species), hyraxes, dassies (Africa, Arabia) **Order

Sirenia The Sirenia (), commonly referred to as sea-cows or sirenians, are an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit swamps, rivers, estuaries, marine wetlands, and coastal marine waters. The Sirenia currently comprise two distinct ...

***Family

Dugongidae Dugongidae is a family in the order of Sirenia. The family has one surviving species, the dugong (''Dugong dugon''), one recently extinct species, Steller's sea cow (''Hydrodamalis gigas''), and a number of extinct genera known from fossil reco ...

: (1 species), dugong (East Africa, Red Sea, North Australia) ***Family

Trichechidae Trichechidae is a family of sirenians that includes all living manatees and several extinct genera. Systematics TRICHECHIDAE *MiosireninaeM. Voss. 2014. On the invalidity of Halitherium schinzii Kaup, 1838 (Mammalia, Sirenia), with comments o ...

: (3 species), manatees (tropical Atlantic coasts and adjacent rivers)

Xenarthra Xenarthra (; from Ancient Greek ξένος, xénos, "foreign, alien" + ἄρθρον, árthron, "joint") is a major clade of placental mammals native to the Americas. There are 31 living species: the anteaters, tree sloths, and armadillos. Ex ...

*Order

Cingulata Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra, is an order of armored New World placental mammals. Dasypodids and chlamyphorids, the armadillos, are the only surviving families in the order. Two groups of cingulates much larger than extant arma ...

**Family

Chlamyphoridae Chlamyphoridae is a family of cingulate mammals. While glyptodonts have traditionally been considered stem-group cingulates outside the group that contains modern armadillos, there had been speculation that the extant family Dasypodidae could be ...

: (14 species), armadillos (Neotropical) **Family

Dasypodidae Dasypodidae is a family of mostly extinct genera of armadillos. One genus, ''Dasypus'', is extant, with at least seven living species. __TOC__ Classification Below is a taxonomy of armadillos in this family. Family Dasypodidae *† Genus ...

: (7 species), long-nosed armadillos (Neotropical and Nearctic) *Order

Pilosa The order Pilosa is a clade of xenarthran placental mammals, native to the Americas. It includes the anteaters and sloths (which includes the extinct ground sloths). The name comes from the Latin word for "hairy". Origins and taxonomy ...

(=Dasypoda) **Suborder

Vermilingua Anteater is a common name for the four extant mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua (meaning "worm tongue") commonly known for eating ants and termites. The individual species have other names in English and other languages. Together wit ...

(anteaters) ***Family

Cyclopedidae The Cyclopedidae is a family of anteaters that includes the silky anteater The silky anteater, also known as the pygmy anteater, has traditionally been considered a single species of anteater, ''Cyclopes didactylus'', in the genus ''Cyclope ...

: (1 species), silky anteater (Neotropical) ***Family

Myrmecophagidae The Myrmecophagidae are a family of anteaters, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek words for 'ant' and 'eat' (''myrmeco-'' and '). Two genera and three species are in the family, consisting of the giant anteater, and the tamanduas. T ...

: (3 species), anteaters (Neotropical) **Suborder

Folivora Sloths are a group of Neotropical xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of movement, tree sloths spend most of their li ...

(sloths) ***Family Choloepodidae: (2 species), two-toed sloths (Neotropical) ***Family Bradypodidae: (4 species), three-toed sloths (Neotropical)

Boreoeutheria Boreoeutheria (, "northern true beasts") is a magnorder of placental mammals that groups together superorders Euarchontoglires and Laurasiatheria. With a few exceptionsExceptional clades whose males lack the usual boreoeutherian scrotum are mo ...

Euarchontoglires Euarchontoglires (synonymous with Supraprimates) is a clade and a superorder of mammals, the living members of which belong to one of the five following groups: rodents, lagomorphs, treeshrews, colugos, and primates. Evolutionary affinitie ...

*Superorder

Euarchonta The Euarchonta are a proposed grandorder of mammals: the order Scandentia (treeshrews), and its sister Primatomorpha mirorder, containing the Dermoptera or colugos and the primates (Plesiadapiformes and descendents). The term "Euarchonta" (m ...

**Order Scandentia ***Family Ptilocercidae (1 species), pen-tailed treeshrews (Southeast Asia) ***Family Tupaiidae: (19 species), treeshrews (Southeast Asia) **Mirorder

Primatomorpha The Primatomorpha are a proposed mirorder of mammals containing the flying lemurs (order Dermoptera or colugos) and lemurs (Strepsirrhini, adapiformes and lemuriformes). However, notably, the haplorhini are sister to the lemurs, together form ...

***Order Dermoptera ****Family Cynocephalidae: (2 species), flying lemurs or colugos (Southeast Asia) ***Order

Primates Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter includin ...

: lemurs, bushbabies, monkeys, apes (

cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

)

****Family

Cheirogaleidae The Cheirogaleidae are the family of strepsirrhine primates containing the various dwarf and mouse lemurs. Like all other lemurs, cheirogaleids live exclusively on the island of Madagascar. Characteristics Cheirogaleids are smaller than the ...

: (32 species), dwarf lemurs (Madagascar) ****Family

Lemuridae Lemuridae is a family (biology), family of Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhine primates native to Madagascar and the Comoro Islands, Comoros. They are represented by the Lemuriformes in Madagascar with one of the highest concentration of the lemurs. One ...

: (22 species), lemurs (Madagascar) ****Family

Lepilemuridae The sportive lemurs are the medium-sized primates that make up the family Lepilemuridae. The family consists of only one extant genus, ''Lepilemur''. They are closely related to the other lemurs and exclusively live on the island of Madagascar. ...

: (26 species), sportive lemurs (Madagascar) ****Family

Indriidae The Indriidae (sometimes incorrectly spelled Indridae) are a family of strepsirrhine primates. They are medium- to large-sized lemurs, with only four teeth in the toothcomb instead of the usual six. Indriids, like all lemurs, live exclusively on t ...

: (19 species), indri and sifakas (Madagascar) ****Family

Daubentoniidae ''Daubentonia'' is the sole genus of the Daubentoniidae, a family of lemuroid primate native to much of Madagascar. The aye-aye ''(Daubentonia madagascariensis)'' is the only Extant taxon, extant member. However, a second species known as the ...

: (1 species), aye-aye (Madagascar area) ****Family

Lorisidae Lorisidae (or sometimes Loridae) is a family of strepsirrhine primates. The lorisids are all slim arboreal animals and comprise the lorises, pottos and angwantibos. Lorisids live in tropical, central Africa as well as in south and southeast A ...

: (9 species), lorises and potto (Africa and Southeast Asia) ****Family

Galagidae Galagos , also known as bush babies, or ''nagapies'' (meaning "night monkeys" in Afrikaans), are small nocturnal primates native to continental, sub-Sahara Africa, and make up the family Galagidae (also sometimes called Galagonidae). They are ...

: (19 species), galagos (Africa) Capuchin Costa Rica

****Family

Tarsiidae Tarsiers ( ) are haplorhine primates of the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Although the group was once more widespread, all of its species living today are found in Maritime Southe ...

: (9 species), tarsiers (Southeast Asia) ****Family

Callitrichidae The Callitrichidae (also called Arctopitheci or Hapalidae) are a family of New World monkeys, including marmosets, tamarins, and lion tamarins. At times, this group of animals has been regarded as a subfamily, called the Callitrichinae, of th ...

: (41 species), marmosets and tamarins (South America) ****Family

Cebidae The Cebidae are one of the five families of New World monkeys now recognised. Extant members are the capuchin and squirrel monkeys. These species are found throughout tropical and subtropical South and Central America. Characteristics Cebid ...

: (14 species), New World monkeys (South America) ****Family

Cercopithecidae Old World monkey is the common English name for a family of primates known taxonomically as the Cercopithecidae (). Twenty-four genera and 138 species are recognized, making it the largest primate family. Old World monkey genera include baboons ...

: (137 species), Old World monkeys (Africa and Eurasia) ****Family

Hylobatidae Gibbons () are apes in the Family (biology), family Hylobatidae (). The family historically contained one genus, but now is split into four extant genera and 20 species. Gibbons live in subtropical and tropical rainforest from eastern Bangladesh ...

: (14 species), gibbons (Southeast Asia) ****Family

Hominidae The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); '' Gorilla'' (the ...

: (8 species), great apes (worldwide) *Superorder

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 morpho ...

**Order

Lagomorpha The lagomorphs are the members of the taxonomic order Lagomorpha, of which there are two living families: the Leporidae (hares and rabbits) and the Ochotonidae ( pikas). The name of the order is derived from the Ancient Greek ''lagos'' (λαγ ...

: pikas, rabbits, hares (Eurasia, Africa, Americas) Arctic Hare 1

***Family

Leporidae Leporidae is the family of rabbits and hares, containing over 60 species of extant mammals in all. The Latin word ''Leporidae'' means "those that resemble ''lepus''" (hare). Together with the pikas, the Leporidae constitute the mammalian ord ...

: (60 species), rabbits and hares (Eurasia, Africa, Americas) ***Family Ochotonidae: (30 species), pikas (Holarctic) **Order

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 lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are roden ...

ia: rodents (cosmopolitan) ***Suborder

Castorimorpha Castorimorpha is the suborder of rodents containing the beavers and the kangaroo rats. A 2017 study using retroposon markers indicated that they are most closely related to the Anomaluromorpha (the scaly-tailed squirrels and the springhare) an ...

****Family

Castoridae The family Castoridae contains the two living species of beavers and their fossil relatives. A highly diverse group of rodents within this family once roamed the earth, but only a single genus is extant today, '' Castor''. Characteristics ...

: (2 species) beavers (Holarctic) ****Family Geomyidae: (about 35 species) pocket gophers (North America) ****Family

Heteromyidae Heteromyidae is a family of rodents consisting of kangaroo rats, kangaroo mice, pocket mice and spiny pocket mice. Most heteromyids live in complex burrows within the deserts and grasslands of western North America, though species within the ...

: (about 59 species) kangaroo rats and kangaroo mice (North America) ***Suborder

Myomorpha The suborder Myomorpha contains 1,524 species of mouse-like rodents, nearly a quarter of all mammal species. Included are mice, rats, gerbils, hamsters, lemmings, and voles. They are grouped according to the structure of their jaws and mol ...

****Family

Dipodidae Jerboas (from ar, جربوع ') are hopping desert rodents found throughout North Africa and Asia, and are members of the family Dipodidae. They tend to live in hot deserts. When chased, jerboas can run at up to . Some species are preyed on ...

: (33 species) jerboas (Africa, Eurasia, North America) ****Family

Zapodidae Zapodidae, the jumping mice, is a family of mouse-like rodents in North America and China. Although mouse-like in general appearance, these rodents are distinguished by their elongated hind limbs, and, typically, by the presence of four pairs ...

: (11 species) jumping mice (North America, Asia) ****Family Sicistidae: (19 species) birch mice (Eurasia) ****Family

Platacanthomyidae The rodent family Platacanthomyidae, or Oriental dormice, includes the spiny dormice and the Chinese pygmy dormice. In spite of their appearance, these animals are not true dormice, but are part of the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. ...

: (3 species) spiny dormouse (Southeast Asia) ****Family

Spalacidae The Spalacidae, or spalacids, are a family of rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. They are native to eastern Asia, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and southeastern Europe. It includes the blind mole-rats, bamboo rats, ...

: (37 species) zokors, root rats, blind mole rats (Africa, Eurasia) ****Family

Calomyscidae 200px, right 200px, Mouse-like hamster using its tail for balance while standing on a branch (a feat difficult for hamsters) Mouse-like hamsters are a group of small rodents found in Syria, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Paki ...

: (8 species) mouse-like hamsters (Asia) ****Family

Nesomyidae The Nesomyidae are a family of African rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes several subfamilies, all of which are native to either continental Africa or to Madagascar. Included in this family are Malagasy rodents, ...

: (68 species) old endemic African muroids (Africa, Madagascar) ****Family

Cricetidae The Cricetidae are a family of rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes true hamsters, voles, lemmings, muskrats, and New World rats and mice. At almost 608 species, it is the second-largest family of mammals, a ...

: (about 580 species) hamsters, voles, and New World rats and mice (Holarctic, South America) ****Family

Muridae The Muridae, or murids, are the largest family of rodents and of mammals, containing approximately 1,383 species, including many species of mice, rats, and gerbils found naturally throughout Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. The name Muridae com ...

: (about 1,383 species) Old World rats and mice and gerbils (Africa, Eurasia, Australia) ***Suborder

Anomaluromorpha Anomaluromorpha is a clade that unites the anomalures, springhares, and zenkerella. It has alternately been designated as either a suborder or infraorder. Most recently, recognized it as one of five suborders of rodents. Characteristics T ...

****Family Anomaluridae: (6 species) scaly-tailed flying squirrels (Africa) ****Family

Pedetidae The Pedetidae are a family of mammals from the rodent order. The two living species, the springhares, are distributed throughout much of southern Africa and also around Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Fossils have been found as far north as Turkey. ...

: (2 species) springhares or springhaas (Africa) ***Suborder

Hystricomorpha The term Hystricomorpha (from Greek ὕστριξ, ''hystrix'' 'porcupine' and Greek μορφή, ''morphē'' 'form') has had many definitions throughout its history. In the broadest sense, it refers to any rodent (except dipodoids) with a hystr ...

****Family Ctenodactylidae: (5 species) gundis (Africa, Asia) ****Family

Diatomyidae Diatomyidae is a family of hystricomorph rodents. It is represented by a single living species, '' Laonastes aenigmamus,'' native to Laos in Southeast Asia. Fossil species are known from the Oligocene and Miocene of Asia and eastern Europe. "L ...

: (1 species) Laotian rock rat (Southeast Asia) ****Family Hystricidae: (11 Species) Old World porcupines (Africa, Asia) ****Family Bathyergidae: (about 21 species) African mole-rats (Africa) ****Family

Petromuridae Petromuridae is a family of hystricognath rodents that contains the dassie rat ''(Petromus typicus)'' of southwestern Africa, the only extant member of this group. The genus ''Petromus ''Petromus'' is a genus of hystricognath rodents ...

: (1 species) rock dassies (Africa) ****Family

Thryonomyidae Thryonomyidae is a family of hystricognath rodents that contains the cane rats ''(Thryomys)'' found throughout sub-Saharan Africa, and a number of fossil genera. Taxonomy Thryonomyidae was formerly more diverse and widespread, with fossil relat ...

: (2 species) cane rats (Africa) ****Family Erethizontidae: (19 species) New World porcupines (New World) ****Family

Chinchillidae The family Chinchillidae is in the order Rodentia and consists of the chinchillas, the viscachas, and their fossil relatives. This family is restricted to southern and western South America, mostly living in mountainous regions of the Andes but ...

: (3 species) chinchillas and viscachas (South America) ****Family

Dinomyidae The Dinomyidae are a family of South American hystricognath rodents: the dinomyids were once a very speciose group, but now contains only a single living species, the pacarana. Several of the extinct dinomyids were among the largest rodents kno ...

: (1 species) pacarana (South America) ****Family

Caviidae Caviidae, the cavy family, is composed of rodents native to South America and includes the domestic guinea pig, wild cavies, and the largest living rodent, the capybara. They are found across South America in open areas from moist savanna to t ...

: (18 species) cavies and capybara (South America) ****Family

Dasyproctidae Dasyproctidae is a family of large South American rodents, comprising the agoutis and acouchis. Their fur is a reddish or dark colour above, with a paler underside. They are herbivorous, often feeding on ripe fruit that falls from trees. They li ...

: (13 species) agoutis and acouchis (South America) ****Family Cuniculidae: (about 3 species) paca (South America) ****Family

Ctenomyidae A tuco-tuco is a neotropical rodent in the family Ctenomyidae.Parada, A., G. D’Elia, C.J. Bidau, and E.P. Lessa. 2011. Species Groups and the Evolutionary Diversification of Tuco-Tucos, genus ''Ctenomys'' (Rodentia: Ctenomyidae). ''Journal of M ...

: (about 60 species) tuco-tucos (South America) ****Family

Octodontidae Octodontidae is a family of rodents, restricted to southwestern South America. Fourteen species of octodontid are recognised, arranged in seven genera. The best known species is the common degu, ''Octodon degus''. Octodontids are medium-sized ...

: (14 species) degus (South America) ****Family Abrocomidae: (9 species) chinchilla-rats (South America) ****Family

Echimyidae Echimyidae is the family of neotropical spiny rats and their fossil relatives. This is the most species-rich family of hystricognath rodents. It is probably also the most ecologically diverse, with members ranging from fully arboreal to ter ...

: spiny rats (South America) ****Family Capromyidae: (10 species) hutias (South America) ****Family

Heptaxodontidae Heptaxodontidae, rarely called giant hutia, is an extinct family of large rodents known from fossil and subfossil material found in the West Indies. One species, '' Amblyrhiza inundata'', is estimated to have weighed between , reaching the weig ...

: giant Hutias (recently extinct) ****Family

Myocastoridae Myocastorini is a tribe of echimyid rodents, proposed in 2017, and containing the five extant genera '' Callistomys'', '' Hoplomys'', '' Myocastor'', ''Proechimys ''Proechimys'' is a genus of South American spiny rats of the family Echimyidae ...

: (57 species) nutrias (South America) ***Suborder

Sciuromorpha Sciuromorpha ("squirrel-like") is a rodent clade that includes several different rodent families. It includes all members of the Sciuridae (the squirrel family) as well as the mountain beaver species. Traditionally, the term has been defined on ...

****Family

Aplodontiidae The family Aplodontiidae also known as Aplodontidae, Haplodontiidae or Haploodontini is traditionally classified as the sole extant family of the suborder Protrogomorpha. It may be the sister family of the Sciuridae. There are fossils from the ...

: (1 species) mountain beaver (western North America) ****Family

Sciuridae Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels. ...

: (about 285 species) squirrels, chipmunks, and marmots (cosmopolitan except Australia) ****Family Gliridae: (29 species) dormice (Africa, Eurasia)

Laurasiatheria Laurasiatheria ("laurasian beasts") is a superorder of placental mammals that groups together true insectivores ( eulipotyphlans), bats ( chiropterans), carnivorans, pangolins ( pholidotes), even-toed ungulates ( artiodactyls), odd-toed ungula ...

*Order

Eulipotyphla Eulipotyphla (, which means "truly fat and blind") is an order of mammals suggested by molecular methods of phylogenetic reconstruction, which includes the laurasiatherian members of the now-invalid polyphyletic order Lipotyphla, but not the afr ...

**Family Solenodontidae: (2 species) solenodons (Cuba, Hispaniola) **Family Nesophontidae: nesophontes (West Indies shrews) ecently extinct**Family Soricidae: (385 species) shrews (Eurasia, Africa, North America to northern South America) **Family

Talpidae The family Talpidae () includes the moles (some of whom are called shrew moles and desmans) who are small insectivorous mammals of the order Eulipotyphla. Talpids are all digging animals to various degrees: moles are completely subterranean ...

: (59 species) moles, shrew-moles, desmans (Eurasia, North America) **Family

Erinaceidae Erinaceidae is a family in the order Eulipotyphla, consisting of the hedgehogs and moonrats. Until recently, it was assigned to the order Erinaceomorpha, which has been subsumed with the paraphyletic Soricomorpha into Eulipotyphla. Eulipotyph ...

: (26 species)hedgehogs, gymnures (Eurasia, Africa) **Family Galericidae: (8 species) moonrats (southeast Asia) *Grandorder

Chiroptera Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bir ...

**Order

: bats ***Suborder Yinpterochiroptera ****Family Pteropodidae: (about 197 species) flying foxes (Africa, Eurasia, Australia) ****Family

Hipposideridae The Hipposideridae are a family of bats commonly known as the Old World leaf-nosed bats. While it has often been seen as a subfamily, Hipposiderinae, of the family Rhinolophidae, it is now more generally classified as its own family.Simmons, 2 ...

: (84 species) trident bats, leaf-nosed bats ****Family Rhinolophidae: (106 species) horseshoe bats (Old World) ****Family Rhinopomatidae: (6 species) mouse-tailed bats (Africa, Southeast Asia) ****Family Craseonycteridae: (1 species) Kitti's hog-nosed bat (Thailand) ****Family

Megadermatidae Megadermatidae, or false vampire bats, are a family of bats found from central Africa, eastwards through southern Asia, and into Australia. They are relatively large bats, ranging from 6.5 cm to 14 cm in head-body length. They have l ...

: (6 species) false vampire bats (Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia) ***Suborder Yangochiroptera ****Family

Emballonuridae Emballonuridae is a family of microbats, many of which are referred to as sac-winged or sheath-tailed bats. They are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. The earliest fossil records are from the Eocene. Desc ...

: (54 species) sac-winged bats (southern continents) ****Family Nycteridae: (about 15 species) slit-faced bats (Africa, Southeast Asia) ****Family

Mystacinidae __NOTOC__ Mystacinidae is a family of unusual bats, the New Zealand short-tailed bats. There is one living genus, '' Mystacina'', with two species, one of which could have possibly become extinct in the 1960s. They are medium-sized bats, about i ...

: (about 2 species) short-tailed bats (New Zealand) ****Family

Thyropteridae Disk-winged bats are a small group of bats of the family Thyropteridae and genus Thyroptera. They are found in Central and South America, usually in moist tropical rain forests. It is a very small family, consisting of a single genus with five e ...

: (5 species) sucker-footed bats (South America) ****Family

Furipteridae Furipteridae is family of bats, allying two genera of single species, ''Amorphochilus schnablii'' (smoky bat) and the type '' Furipterus horrens'' (thumbless bat). They are found in Central and South America and are closely related to the bats ...

: (2 species) smoky bats (South America) ****Family Noctilionidae: (2 species) fishing bats (South America) ****Family

Mormoopidae The family Mormoopidae contains bats known generally as mustached bats, ghost-faced bats, and naked-backed bats. They are found in the Americas from the Southwestern United States to Southeastern Brazil. They are distinguished by the presen ...

: (about 11 species) leaf-chinned bats (South America) ****Family Phyllostomidae: (192 species) leaf-nosed bats (South America) ****Family Myzopodidae: (2 species) sucker-footed bats (Madagascar) ****Family

Natalidae The family Natalidae, or funnel-eared bats, are found from Mexico to Brazil and the Caribbean islands. The family has three genera, '' Chilonatalus'', '' Natalus'' and '' Nyctiellus''. They are slender bats with unusually long tails and, as the ...

: (10 species) funnel-eared bats (South America) ****Family Molossidae: (about 110 species) free-tailed bats (cosmopolitan) ****Family

Miniopteridae ''Miniopterus'', known as the bent-winged or long winged bats, is the sole genus of the family Miniopteridae. They are small flying insectivorous mammals, micro-bats of the order Chiroptera, with wings over twice the length of the body. The genus ...

: (about 40 species) long-fingered bats (Africa, Eurasia, Australia) ****Family

Cistugidae ''Cistugo'' is a genus of bats from southern Africa. The two species have historically been included in the genus '' Myotis'' (family Vespertilionidae), but molecular studies show that the genus is distinct from all other Vespertilionidae, and ...

: (2 species) wing-gland bats (Southern Africa) ****Family

Vespertilionidae Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilionid family is the most diverse and widely distributed of bat famili ...

: (over 300 species) vesper bats (cosmopolitan) *Grandorder

Ferae Ferae ( , , "wild beasts") is a mirorder of placental mammalsMalcolm C. McKenna, Susan K. Bell: ''Classification of Mammals: Above the Species Level'' in Columbia University Press, New York (1997), 631 Seiten. that groups together clades Pan-C ...

**Order

Pholidota Pangolins, sometimes known as scaly anteaters, are mammals of the order Pholidota (, from Ancient Greek ϕολιδωτός – "clad in scales"). The one extant family, the Manidae, has three genera: ''Manis'', '' Phataginus'', and '' Smut ...

***Family

Manidae Manidae is the only extant family of pangolins from superfamily Manoidea. This family comprises three genera (''Manis'' from subfamily Maninae, '' Phataginus'' from subfamily Phatagininae, and '' Smutsia'' from subfamily Smutsiinae), as well as ...

: (about 8 species) pangolins, scaly anteaters (Africa, South Asia) **Order

Carnivora Carnivora is a monophyletic order of placental mammals consisting of the most recent common ancestor of all cat-like and dog-like animals, and all descendants of that ancestor. Members of this group are formally referred to as carnivorans, ...

: carnivorans (cosmopolitan) ***Suborder

Feliformia Feliformia is a suborder within the order Carnivora consisting of "cat-like" carnivorans, including cats (large and small), hyenas, mongooses, viverrids, and related taxa. Feliformia stands in contrast to the other suborder of Carnivora, Canifor ...

****Family Nandiniidae: (4 species) African palm civet (Central Africa) ****Family Prionodontidae: (2 species) Asiatic linsangs (Southeast Asia) ****Family

Felidae Felidae () is the family of mammals in the order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a felid (). The term "cat" refers both to felids in general and specifically to the ...

: (41 species) cats (cosmopolitan except Australia) ****Family

Viverridae Viverridae is a family of small to medium-sized, feliform mammals. The viverrids () comprise 33 species placed in 14 genera. This family was named and first described by John Edward Gray in 1821. Viverrids occur all over Africa, southern Europe ...

: (33 species) civets, Asiatic palm civets (Africa, Southern Europe, Southeast Asia) ****Family

Herpestidae A mongoose is a small terrestrial carnivorous mammal belonging to the family Herpestidae. This family is currently split into two subfamilies, the Herpestinae and the Mungotinae. The Herpestinae comprises 23 living species that are native to s ...

: (34 species) mongooses (Africa, Asia, Southern Europe) ****Family

Eupleridae Eupleridae is a Family (biology), family of carnivorans endemic to Madagascar and comprising 10 known living species in seven genus, genera, commonly known as euplerids, Malagasy mongooses or Malagasy carnivorans. The best known species is t ...

: (10 species) Malagasy carnivorans (Madagascar) ****Family Hyaenidae: (4 species) hyaenas, aardwolf (Africa) ***Suborder

Caniformia Caniformia is a suborder within the order Carnivora consisting of "dog-like" carnivorans. They include dogs ( wolves, foxes, etc.), bears, raccoons, and mustelids. The Pinnipedia ( seals, walruses and sea lions) are also assigned to this gro ...

****Family

Canidae Canidae (; from Latin, ''canis'', "dog") is a family (biology), biological family of dog-like carnivorans, colloquially referred to as dogs, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a canid (). There are three subfamily, ...

: (38 species) dogs (cosmopolitan) ****Family

Ursidae Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

: (8 species) bears (Europe, Asia, New World) ****Family Otariidae: (15 species) eared seals (cosmopolitan except North Atlantic) ****Family

Odobenidae Odobenidae is a family of pinnipeds. The only living species is the walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus''). In the past, however, the group was much more diverse, and includes more than a dozen fossil genera. Taxonomy All genera, except ''Odobenus'', ...

: (1 species) walrus (Northern North American, Northern Europe, Northern Asia) ****Family Phocidae: (18 species) true seals (cosmopolitan) ****Family

Ailuridae Ailuridae is a family in the mammal order Carnivora. The family consists of the red panda (the sole living representative) and its extinct relatives. Georges Cuvier first described ''Ailurus'' as belonging to the raccoon family in 1825; this c ...

: (1 species) red panda (South-Central Asia) ****Family

Mephitidae Mephitidae is a family of mammals comprising the skunks and stink badgers. They are noted for the great development of their anal scent glands, which they use to deter predators. Skunks were formerly classified as a subfamily of the Mustelida ...

: (12 species) skunks (Southeast Asia, New World) ****Family

Mustelidae The Mustelidae (; from Latin ''mustela'', weasel) are a family of carnivorous mammals, including weasels, badgers, otters, ferrets, martens, minks and wolverines, among others. Mustelids () are a diverse group and form the largest family ...

: (about 69 species) weasels and relatives (cosmopolitan except Australia) ****Family

Procyonidae Procyonidae is a New World family of the order Carnivora. It comprises the raccoons, ringtails, cacomistles, coatis, kinkajous, olingos, and olinguitos. Procyonids inhabit a wide range of environments and are generally omnivorous. Character ...

: (14 species) ringtails, olingos, kinkajou, raccoons, coatis (New World) *Grandorder

Ungulata Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraffes, c ...

**Order Perissodactyla: odd-toed ungulates ***Family

Equidae Equidae (sometimes known as the horse family) is the taxonomic family of horses and related animals, including the extant horses, asses, and zebras, and many other species known only from fossils. All extant species are in the genus ''Equus'' ...

: (13 species) horses, zebras, donkeys (Africa, West and Central Asia) ***Family

Tapiridae Tapirs ( ) are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South and Central America, with one species inhabi ...

: (3 species) tapirs (Central and South America, Southeast Asia) ***Family

Rhinocerotidae A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...

: (5 species) rhinoceroses (Africa, Southeast Asia) **Order

Artiodactyla The even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla , ) are ungulates—hoofed animals—which bear weight equally on two (an even number) of their five toes: the third and fourth. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing poste ...

: even-toed ungulates (now includes Cetaceans) ***Suborder

Suiformes Suina (also known as Suiformes) is a suborder of omnivorous, non-ruminant artiodactyl mammals that includes the domestic pig and peccaries. A member of this clade is known as a suine. Suina includes the family Suidae, termed suids, known in ...

****Family

Suidae Suidae is a family of artiodactyl mammals which are commonly called pigs, hogs or swine. In addition to numerous fossil species, 18 extant species are currently recognized (or 19 counting domestic pigs and wild boars separately), classified int ...

: (18 species) pigs (Africa, Eurasia) Sow with piglet

****Family Tayassuidae: (about 3 species) peccaries (New World) ***Suborder

Tylopoda Tylopoda (meaning "calloused foot") is a suborder of terrestrial herbivorous even-toed ungulates belonging to the order Artiodactyla. They are found in the wild in their native ranges of South America and Asia, while Australian feral camels are ...

****Family

Camelidae Camelids are members of the biological family Camelidae, the only currently living family in the suborder Tylopoda. The seven extant members of this group are: dromedary camels, Bactrian camels, wild Bactrian camels, llamas, alpacas, vicu� ...

: (7 species) camels (South America, Asia) ***Suborder

Ruminantia Ruminants ( suborder Ruminantia) are hoofed herbivorous grazing or browsing mammals that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally through microbial actions. Th ...

****Family

Tragulidae The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

: (10 species) mouse-deer (Africa, Asia) ****Family

Antilocapridae The Antilocapridae are a family of artiodactyls endemic to North America. Their closest extant relatives are the giraffids with which they comprise the superfamily Giraffoidea. Only one species, the pronghorn (''Antilocapra americana''), ...

: (1 species) pronghorn (North America) ****Family

Giraffidae The Giraffidae are a family of ruminant artiodactyl mammals that share a common ancestor with deer and bovids. This family, once a diverse group spread throughout Eurasia and Africa, presently comprises only two extant genera, the giraffe (one ...

: (2-9 species) giraffe and okapi (Africa) Giraffen

****Family

Cervidae Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the rei ...

: (26 species) deer (Holarctic, South America) ****Family

Moschidae Moschidae is a family of pecoran even-toed ungulates, containing the musk deer (''Moschus'') and its extinct relatives. They are characterized by long 'saber teeth' instead of horns, antlers or ossicones, modest size (''Moschus'' only reaches ...

: (7 species) musk deer (Asia) Muntjac deer

****Family

Bovidae The Bovidae comprise the biological family of cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals that includes cattle, bison, buffalo, antelopes, and caprines. A member of this family is called a bovid. With 143 extant species and 300 known extinct species ...

: (143 species) cattle, antelope, sheep, etc. (Africa, Holarctic) Pair of Icelandic Sheep

***Suborder

Whippomorpha Whippomorpha or Cetancodonta is a group of animals that contains all living cetaceans (whales, dolphins, etc.) and hippopotamuses, as well as their extinct relatives, i.e. Entelodonts and Andrewsarchus. All Whippomorphs are descendants of the ...

****Family

Hippopotamidae Hippopotamidae is a family of stout, naked-skinned, and semiaquatic artiodactyl mammals, possessing three-chambered stomachs and walking on four toes on each foot. While they resemble pigs physiologically, their closest living relatives are t ...

: (2 species) hippos (Africa) ****Infraorder Cetacea *****Parvorder

Mysticeti Baleen whales (systematic name Mysticeti), also known as whalebone whales, are a parvorder of carnivorous marine mammals of the infraorder Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises) which use keratinaceous baleen plates (or "whalebone") in their ...

******Family

Balaenopteridae Rorquals () are the largest group of baleen whales, which comprise the family Balaenopteridae, containing ten extant species in three genera. They include the largest animal that has ever lived, the blue whale, which can reach , and the fin wha ...

: (10 species) rorquals and grey whales (cosmopolitan) ******Family

Balaenidae Balaenidae () is a family of whales of the parvorder Mysticeti that contains two living genera: the right whales (genus ''Eubalaena''), and in a separate genus, the closely related bowhead whale (genus '' Balaena''). Evolutionary history Bal ...

: (4 species) right and bowhead whales (polar and temperate waters) ******Family

Eschrichtiidae Eschrichtiidae or the gray whales is a family of baleen whale (Parvorder Mysticeti) with a single extant species, the gray whale (''Eschrichtius robustus''), as well as three described fossil genera: '' Archaeschrichtius'' and '' Eschrichtioides ...

: (1 species) gray whale (North Pacific and North Atlantic) ******Family

Neobalaenidae Neobalaenidae is a family of baleen whales (suborder Mysticeti) including the extant pygmy right whale. Although traditionally considered related to balaenids, a recent phylogenetic study by Fordyce and Marx (2013) recovered the living pygmy righ ...

: (1 species) pygmy right whales (southern hemisphere) *****Parvorder

Odontoceti The toothed whales (also called odontocetes, systematic name Odontoceti) are a parvorder of cetaceans that includes dolphins, porpoises, and all other whales possessing teeth, such as the beaked whales and sperm whales. Seventy-three species o ...

******Family

Delphinidae Oceanic dolphins or Delphinidae are a widely distributed family of dolphins that live in the sea. Close to forty extant species are recognised. They include several big species whose common names contain "whale" rather than "dolphin", such as th ...

: (about 37 species) dolphins (cosmopolitan) ******Family

Monodontidae The cetacean family Monodontidae comprises two living whale species, the narwhal and the beluga whale and at least four extinct species, known from the fossil record. Beluga and Narwhal are native to coastal regions and pack ice around the Arct ...

: (2 species) beluga and narwhal (Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific) ******Family

Phocoenidae Porpoises are a group of fully aquatic marine mammals, all of which are classified under the family Phocoenidae, parvorder Odontoceti (toothed whales). Although similar in appearance to dolphins, they are more closely related to narwhals ...

: (8 species) porpoises (cosmopolitan) ******Family Physeteridae: (3 species) sperm whales (cosmopolitan) ******Family

Kogiidae Kogiidae is a family comprising at least two extant species of Cetacea, the pygmy (''Kogia breviceps)'' and dwarf (''K. sima)'' sperm whales. As their common names suggest, they somewhat resemble sperm whales, with squared heads and small lower ...

: (2 species) dwarf sperm whales (cosmopolitan) ******Family Platanistidae: (2 species) South Asian river dolphin (Southern Asia) ******Family

Iniidae Iniidae is a family of river dolphins containing one living genus, ''Inia'', and four extinct genera. The extant genus inhabits the river basins of South America, but the family formerly had a wider presence across the Atlantic Ocean. Iniidae a ...

: (1-4 species) Amazon River dolphin (South America) ******Family Pontoporiidae: (1 species) La Plata River dolphin (South America) ******Family

Lipotidae Lipotidae is a family of river dolphins containing the possibly extinct baiji of China and the fossil genus ''Parapontoporia'' from the Late Miocene and Pliocene of the Pacific coast of North America. The genus '' Prolipotes'', which is based on ...

: baiji ******Family

Ziphiidae Beaked whales (systematic name Ziphiidae) are a Family (biology), family of cetaceans noted as being one of the least known groups of mammals because of their deep-sea habitat and apparent low abundance. Only three or four of the 24 species are ...

: (24 species) beaked whales (cosmopolitan)

Standardized textbook classification

A somewhat standardized classification system has been adopted by most current

mammalogy In zoology, mammalogy is the study of mammals – a class of vertebrates with characteristics such as homeothermic metabolism, fur, four-chambered hearts, and complex nervous systems. Mammalogy has also been known as "mastology," "theriology," a ...

classroom textbooks. The following taxonomy of extant and recently extinct mammals is taken from the 6th edition of Vaughan's ''Mammalogy''. This approach emphasizes an initial split between egg-laying prototherians and live-bearing therians. The therians are further divided into the marsupial Metatheria and the "placental" Eutheria. No attempt is made in this classification to further distinguish among the orders within these subclasses and infraclasses. This system also makes no note of the position of entirely fossil groups. In this and later taxonomies, families are merely listed under the order to which they belong. More detailed relationships among families is presented in the article of each order.

Subclass
Prototheria Prototheria (; from Greek πρώτος, ''prōtos'', first, + θήρ, ''thēr'', wild animal) is a subclass to which the orders Monotremata, Morganucodonta, Docodonta, Triconodonta and Multituberculata have been assigned, although the validity o ...

*Order Monotremata **Family Tachyglossidae (echidnas) **Family

Ornithorhynchidae The Ornithorhynchidae are one of the two extant families in the order Monotremata, and contain the platypus and its extinct relatives. The other family is the Tachyglossidae, or echidnas. Within the Ornithorhynchidae are the genera '' Monotrem ...

(platypuses)

Subclass
Theria Theria (; Greek: , wild beast) is a subclass of mammals amongst the Theriiformes. Theria includes the eutherians (including the placental mammals) and the metatherians (including the marsupials) but excludes the egg-laying monotremes. C ...

*Infraclass

Metatheria Metatheria is a mammalian clade that includes all mammals more closely related to marsupials than to placentals. First proposed by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1880, it is a more inclusive group than the marsupials; it contains all marsupials as we ...

(marsupials and their nearest ancestors) **Order Didelphimorphia ***Family Didelphidae (opossums, etc.) **Order

Paucituberculata Paucituberculata is an order of South American marsupials. Although currently represented only by the seven living species of shrew opossums, this order was formerly much more diverse, with more than 60 extinct species named from the fossil rec ...

***Family

Caenolestidae The family Caenolestidae contains the seven surviving species of shrew opossum: small, shrew-like marsupials that are confined to the Andes mountains of South America. The order is thought to have diverged from the ancestral marsupial line very e ...

(shrew opossums) **Order

Microbiotheria Microbiotheria is an australidelphian marsupial order that encompasses two families, Microbiotheriidae and Woodburnodontidae, and is represented by only one extant species, the monito del monte, and a number of extinct species known from foss ...

***Family

Microbiotheriidae Microbiotheriidae is a family of australidelphian marsupials represented by only one extant species, the monito del monte, and a number of extinct species known from fossils in South America, Western Antarctica, and northeastern Australia. Mi ...

(monitos del monte) **Order

Dasyuromorphia Dasyuromorphia (, meaning "hairy tail" in Greek) is an order comprising most of the Australian carnivorous marsupials, including quolls, dunnarts, the numbat, the Tasmanian devil, and the thylacine. In Australia, the exceptions include the ...

(most carnivorous marsupials) ***Family

Thylacinidae Thylacinidae is an extinct family of carnivorous, superficially dog-like marsupials from the order Dasyuromorphia. The only species to survive into modern times was the thylacine (''Thylacinus cynocephalus''), which became extinct in 1936. The ...

(Tasmanian tigers) ***Family

Myrmecobiidae The numbat (''Myrmecobius fasciatus''), also known as the noombat or walpurti, is an insectivorous marsupial. It is diurnal and its diet consists almost exclusively of termites. The species was once widespread across southern Australia, but ...

(numbats) ***Family

Dasyuridae The Dasyuridae are a family of marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea, including 71 extant species divided into 17 genera. Many are small and mouse-like or shrew-like, giving some of them the name marsupial mice or marsupial shrews, but ...

(Tasmanian devils, quolls, dunnarts, planigale, etc.) **Order

Peramelemorphia The order Peramelemorphia includes the bandicoots and bilbies; it equates approximately to the mainstream of marsupial omnivores. All members of the order are endemic to the twin land masses of Australia-New Guinea and most have the characteris ...

(bandicoots, bilbies, etc.) ***Family

Peramelidae The marsupial family Peramelidae contains all of the extant bandicoots. They are found throughout Australia and New Guinea, with at least some species living in every available habitat, from rainforest to desert. Four fossil peramelids are descr ...

(bandicoots, echymiperas) ***Family † Chaeropodidae (pig-footed bandicoot) **Order

Notoryctemorphia Notoryctidae is a family of mammals, allying several extant and fossil species of Australia. The group appear to have diverged from other marsupials at an early stage and are highly specialised to foraging through loose sand; the unusual feature ...

(marsupial moles) ***Family

Notoryctidae Notoryctidae is a family of mammals, allying several extant and fossil species of Australia. The group appear to have diverged from other marsupials at an early stage and are highly specialised to foraging through loose sand; the unusual feature ...

**Order

Diprotodontia Diprotodontia (, from Greek "two forward teeth") is the largest extant order of marsupials, with about 155 species, including the kangaroos, wallabies, possums, koala, wombats, and many others. Extinct diprotodonts include the hippopotamus-sized ...

***Family

Phascolarctidae The Phascolarctidae (''φάσκωλος (phaskolos)'' - pouch or bag, ''ἄρκτος (arktos)'' - bear, from the Greek ''phascolos'' + ''arctos'' meaning pouched bear) is a family of marsupials of the order Diprotodontia, consisting of only on ...

(koalas) ***Family Vombatidae (wombats) ***Family

Phalangeridae The Phalangeridae are a family of mostly nocturnal marsupials native to Australia, New Guinea, and Eastern Indonesia, including the cuscuses, brushtail possums, and their close relatives. Considered a type of possum, most species are arbore ...

(brushtail possums and cuscuses) ***Family

Potoroidae Potoroidae is a family of marsupials, small Australian animals known as bettongs, potoroos, and rat-kangaroos. All are rabbit-sized, brown, jumping marsupials and resemble a large rodent or a very small wallaby. Taxonomy The potoroids are s ...

(bettongs, potoroos and rat kangaroos) ***Family

Macropodidae Macropodidae is a family of marsupials that includes kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, quokkas, and several other groups. These genera are allied to the suborder Macropodiformes, containing other macropods, and ...

(kangaroos, wallabies, etc.) ***Family

Burramyidae The pygmy possums are a family of small possums that together form the marsupial family Burramyidae. The five extant species of pygmy possum are grouped into two genera. Four of the species are endemic to Australia, with one species also co-occ ...

(pygmy possums) ***Family

Pseudocheiridae Pseudocheiridae is a family of arboreal marsupials containing 17 extant species of ringtailed possums and close relatives. They are found in forested areas and shrublands throughout Australia and New Guinea. Characteristics Physically, they app ...

(ringtailed possums, etc.) ***Family

Petauridae Petauridae is a family of possums containing 13 species: four species of trioks and striped possum (genus ''Dactylopsila''), eight species of wrist-winged glider (genus ''Petaurus''), and Leadbeater's possum (''Gymnobelideus leadbeateri''), whi ...

( striped possum,

Leadbeater's possum Leadbeater's possum (''Gymnobelideus leadbeateri'') is a critically endangered possum largely restricted to small pockets of alpine ash, mountain ash, and snow gum forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melb ...

yellow-bellied glider The yellow-bellied glider (''Petaurus australis''), also known as the fluffy glider, is an arboreal and nocturnal gliding possum that lives in native eucalypt forests in eastern Australia, from northern Queensland south to Victoria. Habitat The ...

sugar glider The sugar glider (''Petaurus breviceps'') is a small, omnivorous, arboreal, and nocturnal gliding possum belonging to the marsupial infraclass. The common name refers to its predilection for sugary foods such as sap and nectar and its ab ...

, mahogany glider and

squirrel glider The squirrel glider (''Petaurus norfolcensis'') is a nocturnal gliding possum. The squirrel glider is one of the wrist-winged gliders of the genus ''Petaurus''. Habitat This species' home range extends from Bordertown near the South Australi ...

) ***Family Tarsipedidae (honey possum) ***Family

Acrobatidae The Acrobatidae are a small family of gliding marsupials containing two genera, each with a single species, the feathertail glider (''Acrobates pygmaeus'') from Australia and feather-tailed possum (''Distoechurus pennatus'') from New Guinea. Th ...

(

feathertail glider The feathertail glider (''Acrobates pygmaeus''), also known as the pygmy gliding possum, pygmy glider, pygmy phalanger, flying phalanger and flying mouse, is a species of marsupial native to eastern Australia. It is the world's smallest gliding ...

and

feather-tailed possum The feather-tailed possum (''Distoechurus pennatus'') is a species of marsupial in the family Acrobatidae. It is found in West Papua and Papua New Guinea. It is not to be confused with the feathertail glider, the only other species in the family ...

) ***Family

Hypsiprymnodontidae The Hypsiprymnodontidae are a family of macropods, one of two families containing animals commonly referred to as rat-kangaroos. The single known extant genus and species in this family, the musky rat-kangaroo, ''Hypsiprymnodon moschatus'', oc ...

(musky rat kangaroo) *Infraclass

**Order

***Family Tenrecidae (tenrecs) ***Family

(golden moles) **Order Macroscelidea ***Family Macroscelididae (elephant-shrews **Order

***Family

(aardvark) **Order

***Family

(elephants) **Order

***Family

(dugongs, sea cows) ***Family

(manatees) **Order

***Family

(hyraxes) **Order

***Family Bradypodidae (three-toed tree sloths) ***Family

Megalonychidae Megalonychidae is an extinct family of sloths including the extinct '' Megalonyx''. Megalonychids first appeared in the early Oligocene, about 35 million years (Ma) ago, in southern Argentina (Patagonia). There is actually one possible find dati ...

(two-toed tree sloths) ***Family

(tamanduas and giant anteater) ***Family

(silky anteater) **Order

***Family

(armadillos) **Order Dermoptera ***Family Cynocephalidae (colugos) **Order Scandentia ***Family Tupaiidae (tree shrews) ***Family Ptilocercidae (pen-tailed treeshrew Noctilio albiventris

**Order

***Family

(dwarf lemurs, mouse lemurs) ***Family

(lemurs) ***Family

(sportive lemurs) ***Family

(wooly lemurs, sifakas) ***Family

(aye-aye) ***Family

(lorises) ***Family

(bushbabies, galagos) ***Family

(tarsiers) ***Family

(marmosets, tamarins, capuchins, squirrel monkeys) ***Family

Aotidae Night monkeys, also known as owl monkeys or douroucoulis (), are nocturnal New World monkeys of the genus ''Aotus'', the only member of the family Aotidae (). The genus comprises eleven species which are found across Panama and much of South ...

(night monkeys) ***Family

Pitheciidae The Pitheciidae () are one of the five families of New World monkeys now recognised. Formerly, they were included in the family Atelidae. The family includes the titis, saki monkeys and uakaris. Most species are native to the Amazon region of B ...

(titis, uacaris, sakis) ***Family

Atelidae The Atelidae are one of the five family (biology), families of New World monkeys now recognised. It was formerly included in the family Cebidae. Atelids are generally larger monkeys; the family includes the howler monkey, howler, spider monkey, ...

(howlers, spider monkeys, wooly monkeys) ***Family

(Old World monkeys) ***Family

(gibbons) ***Family

(apes, human) **Order

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

***Family

(sewellel or mountain beaver) ***Family

(squirrels) ***Family Gliridae (dormice) ***Family

(beavers) ***Family

(kangaroo rats, pocket mice) ***Family Geomyidae (pocket gophers) ***Family

(jerboas, birch mice, jumping mice) ***Family

(tree mice) ***Family

(zokors, bamboo rats, mole rats) ***Family

(calomyscuses) ***Family

(pouched rats and mice, climbing and fat mice, etc.) ***Family

(voles, hamsters, New World rats and mice ***Family

(rats, mice) ***Family Anomaluridae (scaily-tailed flying squirrels) ***Family

(springhaas, springhares) ***Family Ctenodactylidae (gundis) ***Family

(kha-nyous or Laotian rock rat) ***Family Bathyergidae (mole-rats) ***Family Hystricidae (African and Asian porcupines) ***Family

(dassie rat) ***Family

(can rats) ***Family Erethizontidae (bristle-spined rat and New World porcupines) ***Family

(chinchillas, vizcachas) ***Family

(pacarana) ***Family

(cuis, guinea-pigs, cavies, maras, capybaras) ***Family

(agoutis, acouchis) ***Family Cuniculidae (pacas) ***Family

(tuco-tucos) ***Family

(degus, rock rats, vizcacha-rats) ***Family Abrocomidae (chinchilla rats) ***Family

(spiny rats, tree rats, hutias, & coypu) ***Family †

(giant hutias and key mice) **Order

***Family Ochotonidae (pikas) ***Family †

Prolagidae ''Prolagus'' is an extinct genus of pika within the order Lagomorpha. Over 20 species of ''Prolagus'' have been named, beginning in the Early Miocene in Europe 20 million years ago, where it ranged widely for most of the epoch; by the end of th ...

(Sardinian pika) ***Family

(rabbits) **Order

***Family

(hedgehogs, gymnures) ***Family † Nesophontidae (nesophontes) ***Family Solenodontidae (solenodons, alamiquis) ***Family Soricidae (shrews) ***Family

(moles, desmans) **Order

***Family Pteropodidae (Old World fruit bats, flying foxes) ***Family Rhinopomatidae (mouse-tailed bats) ***Family Craseonycteridae (hog-nosed or bumblebee bat) ***Family

(false vampire bats) ***Family Rhinolophidae (horseshoe bats) ***Family

(sac-winged bats) ***Family Nycteridae (slit-faced bats) ***Family Myzopodidae (sucker-footed bats) ***Family

(New Zealand short-tailed bats) ***Family

(disk-winged bats) ***Family

(smokey bat and thumbless bat) ***Family Noctilionidae (bulldog bats) ***Family

(mustached and ghost-faced bats) ***Family Phyllostomidae (New World leaf-nosed bats) ***Family

(funnel-eared bats) ***Family Molossidae (free-tailed bats) ***Family

(evening bats, common bats) ***Family

(bent-winged or long-fingered bats) **Order

***Family

(pangolins) **Order

***Family

(cats) ***Family

(civets, genets) ***Family

(falanouc, fossa, Madagascaran mongooses) ***Family Nandiniidae (African palm civet) ***Family

(mongooses) ***Family Hyaenidae (hyaenas, aardwolf) ***Family

(wolves, foxes, jackals) ***Family

(bears, giant panda) ***Family

(walrus) ***Family Otariidae (eared seals, fur seals, sea lions) ***Family Phocidae (earless seals) ***Family

(weasels, badgers, otters) ***Family

(raccoons, ringtails, coatis) ***Family

(red panda) **Order Perissodactyla ***Family

(horses, asses, zebras) ***Family

(tapirs) ***Family

(rhinoceroses) **Order

***Family

(hogs, pigs) ***Family Tayassuidae (peccaries) ***Family

(hippopotamuses) ***Family

(camels, vicunas, guanacos, llamas) ***Family

(chevrotains and mouse deer) ***Family

(musk deer) ***Family

(deer) ***Family

(pronghorn) ***Family

(giraffe and okapi) ***Family

(antelope, bison, cattle, duikers, goats, sheep, etc.) **Order Cetacea ***Family

(right whales) ***Family

(rorquals) ***Family

(gray whales ***Family

Cetotheriidae Cetotheriidae is a family of baleen whales (parvorder Mysticeti). The family is known to have existed from the Late Oligocene to the Early Pleistocene before going extinct. Although some phylogenetic studies conducted by recovered the living ...

(pygmy right whale) ***Family

(ocean dolphins) ***Family

(narwhal and beluga) ***Family

(porpoises) ***Family Physeteridae (sperm whales) ***Family Platanistidae (Ganges and Indus river dolphins) ***Family

(baiji, franciscana, and Amazon river dolphins) ***Family

(beaked whales)

McKenna/Bell classification

In 1997, the classification of mammals was revised by Malcolm C. McKenna and Susan K. Bell. The ''Classification of Mammals Above the species level'', here referred to as the "McKenna/Bell classification", is a comprehensive work on the systematics, relationships, and occurrences of all mammal taxa, living and extinct, down through the rank of genus. The authors worked together as

paleontologists Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

at the American Museum of Natural History, New York. McKenna inherited the project from Simpson and, with Bell, constructed a completely updated hierarchical system, covering living and extinct taxa that reflects the historical genealogy of Mammalia. The McKenna/Bell hierarchical listing of all of the terms used for mammal groups above the species includes extinct mammals as well as modern groups, and introduces some fine distinctions such as legions and sublegions and ranks which fall between classes and orders that are likely to be glossed over by the layman. Click on the highlighted link for
table comparing the traditional and the new McKenna/Bell classifications of mammals
Extinct groups are represented by †.

Subclass
Prototheria Prototheria (; from Greek πρώτος, ''prōtos'', first, + θήρ, ''thēr'', wild animal) is a subclass to which the orders Monotremata, Morganucodonta, Docodonta, Triconodonta and Multituberculata have been assigned, although the validity o ...

(monotremes) *Order Platypoda: platypuses **Family

: platypuses *Order Tachyglossa: echidnas (spiny anteaters) **Family Tachyglossidae: echidnas

Subclass
Theriiformes Theriiformes is a clade of mammals. The term was coined by Timothy B. Rowe in his doctoral dissertation, and is defined as the clade formed by the most recent common ancestor of multituberculates and theria Theria (; Greek: , wild beast) ...

*Infraclass †

Allotheria Allotheria (meaning "other beasts", from the Greek , '–other and , '–wild animal) is an extinct branch of successful Mesozoic mammals. The most important characteristic was the presence of lower molariform teeth equipped with two longitudi ...

**Order †

Multituberculata Multituberculata (commonly known as multituberculates, named for the multiple tubercles of their teeth) is an extinct order of rodent-like mammals with a fossil record spanning over 130 million years. They first appeared in the Middle Jurassic, ...

: multituberculates ***Family †

Plagiaulacidae Plagiaulacidae is a family of fossil mammals within the order Multituberculata. Remains are known from the Upper Jurassic and earliest Cretaceous of North America and Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a contine ...

***Family † Bolodontidae ***Family †

Hahnodontidae Hahnodontidae is a family of extinct mammaliaforms from Early Cretaceous deposits in Morocco and the Western United States. Although originally considered to belong to the extinct clade Multituberculata, recent work indicates that hahnodontid ...

***Family † Albionbaataridae ***Family †

Arginbaataridae ''Arginbaatar'' is a genus of extinct mammal from the Lower Cretaceous of Mongolia. It was a member of the Multituberculata, an order which is also extinct. It belongs to the family Arginbaataridae (Hahn & Hahn 1983). The genus ''Arginbaatar'' ...

***Family †

Kogaionidae Kogaionidae is a family of fossil mammals within the extinct order Multituberculata. Representatives are known from the Upper Cretaceous and the Paleocene of Europe. Having started as island endemics on Hateg Island during the Upper Cretaceous, ...

***Suborder †

Cimolodonta Cimolodonta is a taxon of extinct mammals that lived from the Cretaceous to the Eocene. They were some of the more derived members of the extinct order Multituberculata. They probably lived something of a rodent-like existence until their eco ...

****Family † Sloanbaataridae **** Superfamily †

Ptilodontoidea Ptilodontoidea is a group of extinct mammals from the Northern Hemisphere. They were generally small, somewhat rodent-like creatures of the extinct order Multituberculata. Some of these genera boast a great many species, though remains are ge ...

*****Family †

Cimolodontidae Cimolodontidae is a family of fossil mammals within the extinction, extinct Order (biology), order Multituberculata. Representatives are known from the Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene of North America. The family Cimolodontidae was named by Oth ...

*****Family † Ptilodontidae ****Superfamily †

Taeniolabidoidea Taeniolabidoidea is a group of extinct mammals known from North America and Asia. They were the largest members of the extinct order Multituberculata, as well as the largest non- therian mammals. ''Lambdopsalis'' even provides direct fossil ev ...

*****Family †

Cimolomyidae Cimolomyidae is a family of fossil mammal within the extinct order Multituberculata. Representatives are known from the Upper Cretaceous and the Paleocene of North America and perhaps Mongolia. The family is part of the suborder Cimolodonta. O ...

*****Family †

Eucosmodontidae Eucosmodontidae is a poorly preserved family of fossil mammals within the extinct order Multituberculata. Representatives are known from strata dating from the Upper Cretaceous through the Lower Eocene of North America, as well as the Paleo ...

*****Family †

Taeniolabididae Taeniolabididae is one of the two multituberculate clades within Taeniolabidoidea. Originally basically synonymous with Taeniolabidoidea, it has more recently been found to be a specific clade including ''Kimbetopsalis'', '' Taeniolabis'' and s ...

***Suborder †

Gondwanatheria Gondwanatheria is an extinct group of mammaliaforms that lived in parts of Gondwana, including Madagascar, India, South America, Africa and Antarctica during the Upper Cretaceous through the Paleogene (and possibly much earlier, if '' Allostaff ...

****Family †

Ferugliotheriidae Ferugliotheriidae is one of three known families in the order Gondwanatheria, an enigmatic group of extinct mammals. Gondwanatheres have been classified as a group of uncertain affinities or as members of Multituberculata, a major extinct mammal ...

****Family †

Sudamericidae Sudamericidae is a family of gondwanathere mammals that lived during the late Cretaceous to Miocene. Its members include ''Lavanify'' and '' Vintana'' from the Cretaceous of Madagascar, ''Bharattherium'' (=''Dakshina'') from the Cretaceous of Ind ...

*Infraclass †

Triconodonta This category includes prehistoric mammals known only from fossil records. Articles placed directly in this category do not easily fall into one of the given subcategories. {{Wikisourcecat, Prehistoric mammals Extinct mammals Mammals ...

**Family † Austrotriconodontidae **Family †

Amphilestidae Amphilestidae is a family of Mesozoic mammals, generally regarded as eutriconodonts. They may form a paraphyletic or polyphyletic assemblage, though they share with gobiconodontids their similar tooth occlusion patterns and may be especially cl ...

**Family †

Triconodontidae Triconodontidae is an extinct family of small, carnivorous mammals belonging to the order Eutriconodonta, endemic to what would become Asia, Europe, North America and probably also Africa and South America during the Jurassic through Cretaceous ...

*Infraclass

Holotheria Mammalia is a class of animal within the phylum Chordata. Mammal classification has been through several iterations since Carl Linnaeus initially defined the class. No classification system is universally accepted; McKenna & Bell (1997) and Wilson ...

**Family † Chronoperatidae **Superlegion † Kuehneotheria ***Family †

Kuehneotheriidae Kuehneotheriidae is an extinct family of mammaliaforms traditionally placed within ' Symmetrodonta', though now generally considered more basal than true symmetrodonts. All members of Kuehneotheriidae which have been found so far are represented ...

***Family † Woutersiidae **Superlegion Trechnotheria ***Legion † Symmetrodonta ****Family †

Shuotheriidae Shuotheriidae is a small family of Jurassic mammals whose remains are found in China, England and possibly Russia. They have been proposed to be close relatives of Australosphenida, the group that contains living monotremes, together forming the ...

****Order † Amphidontoidea *****Family †

Amphidontidae The Amphidontidae are a family of extinct mammals from the Early Cretaceous, belonging to the triconodonts. It contains most of the species previously belonged to Amphilestidae. Phylogeny Cladogram after Marisol Montellano, James A. Hopson, ...

****Order † Spalacotherioidea *****Family †

Tinodontidae Tinodontidae is an extinct family of actively mobile mammals, endemic to what would now be North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to t ...

*****Family † Spalacotheriidae *****Family † Barbereniidae ***Legion

Cladotheria Cladotheria is a clade (sometimes ranked as a legion) of mammals. It contains modern therian mammals (marsupials and placentals) and several extinct groups, such as the dryolestoids, amphitheriids and peramurids. The clade was named in 19 ...

****Sublegion †

Dryolestoidea Dryolestida is an extinct order of mammals, primarily and possibly exclusively known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous. They are considered members of the clade Cladotheria, close to the ancestry of therian mammals. It is also believed that they d ...

*****Order †

Dryolestida Dryolestida is an extinct order of mammals, primarily and possibly exclusively known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous. They are considered members of the clade Cladotheria, close to the ancestry of therian mammals. It is also believed that they ...

******Family †

Dryolestidae Dryolestidae is an extinct family of Mesozoic mammals, known from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous of the North Hemisphere. The oldest known member, '' Anthracolestes'', is known from the Middle Jurassic Itat Formation of Western Siber ...

******Family †

Paurodontidae Paurodontidae is a family of Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous mammals in the order Dryolestida. Remains of paurodontids have been found in the United States, Britain, Portugal, and Tanzania. The group likely represents a paraphyletic group of ba ...

******Family †

Donodontidae Cladotheria is a clade (sometimes ranked as a legion) of mammals. It contains modern therian mammals (marsupials and placentals) and several extinct groups, such as the dryolestoids, amphitheriids and peramurids. The clade was named in 1975 ...

******Family † Mesungulatidae ******Family † Reigitheriidae ******Family †

Brandoniidae Dryolestidae is an extinct family of Mesozoic mammals, known from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous of the North Hemisphere. The oldest known member, '' Anthracolestes'', is known from the Middle Jurassic Itat Formation of Western Siber ...

*****Order † Amphitheriida ******Family † Amphitheriidae ****Sublegion

Zatheria Cladotheria is a clade (sometimes ranked as a legion) of mammals. It contains modern therian mammals (marsupials and placentals) and several extinct groups, such as the dryolestoids, amphitheriids and peramurids. The clade was named in 1975 ...

*****Family † Arguitheriidae *****Family † Arguimuridae *****Family † Vincelestidae *****Infralegion † Peramura ******Family †

Peramuridae The family Peramuridae is a family of mammals that lived in the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. They are considered to be advanced cladotherians closely related to therian mammals as part of Zatheria Cladotheria is a clade (sometimes ran ...

*****Infralegion

Tribosphenida Tribosphenida is a group (infralegion) of mammals that includes the ancestor of ''Hypomylos'', Aegialodontia and Theria (the last common ancestor of marsupials and placentals plus all of its descendants). Its current definition is more or less ...

******Family † Necrolestidae ******Supercohort † Aegialodontia *******Family † Aegialodontidae ******Supercohort

Theria Theria (; Greek: , wild beast) is a subclass of mammals amongst the Theriiformes. Theria includes the eutherians (including the placental mammals) and the metatherians (including the marsupials) but excludes the egg-laying monotremes. C ...

: therian mammals *******Family †

Pappotheriidae ''Pappotherium'' is an extinct genus of mammals from the Albian (early Cretaceous) of Texas, US, known from a fossilized maxilla fragment bearing two tribosphenic molars, discovered within the Glen Rose Formation near Decatur, Wise County, ...

*******Family † Holoclemensiidae *******Family † Kermackiidae *******Family † Endotheriidae *******Family † Picopsidae *******Family † Potamotelsidae *******Family † Plicatodontidae *******Order †

Deltatheroida Deltatheroida is an extinct group of basal metatherians that were distantly related to modern marsupials. The majority of known members of the group lived in the Cretaceous; one species, '' Gurbanodelta kara'', is known from the late Paleocene ( ...

********Family †

Deltatheridiidae Deltatheridiidae is an extinct family of basal carnivorous metatherians that lived in the Cretaceous and were closely related to marsupials. Their fossils are restricted to Central Asia ( Mongolia and Uzbekistan) and North America ( United S ...

********Family † Deltatheroididae *******Order †

Asiadelphia Asiatheriidae ("Asian opossums") is an family of Cretaceous metatherians in the order Asiadelphia. Different from the Ameridelphia, they lacked a prominent distolateral process on the scaphoid, and possessed a more slender fibula. The masse ...

********Family † Asiatheriidae *******Cohort

Marsupialia Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a ...

: marsupials ********Family † Yingabalanaridae ********Suborder † Archimetatheria *********Family †

Stagodontidae Stagodontidae is an extinct family of carnivorous metatherian mammals that inhabited North America and Europe during the late Cretaceous, and possibly to the Eocene in South America. Description Currently, the family includes four genera, '' ...

*********Family † Pediomyidae ********Magnorder

Australidelphia Australidelphia is the superorder that contains roughly three-quarters of all marsupials, including all those native to Australasia and a single species — the monito del monte — from South America. All other American marsupials are members o ...

*********Superorder

**********Family

: monito del monte *********Superorder

Eometatheria Australidelphia is the superorder that contains roughly three-quarters of all marsupials, including all those native to Australasia and a single species — the monito del monte — from South America. All other American marsupials are members of ...

**********Order † Yalkaparidontia ***********Family † Yalkaparidontidae **********Order

: marsupial moles ***********Family

: marsupial moles **********Grandorder

: marsupial carnivores ***********Family †

: recently extinct Tasmanian tiger and relatives ***********Family

: Tasmanian devil, quolls, numbat, etc. **********Grandorder Syndactyli: syndactylous marsupials ***********Order Peramelia: bandicoots ************Family

************Family

Peroryctidae The New Guinean long-nosed bandicoots (genus ''Peroryctes'') are members of the order Peramelemorphia. They are small to medium-sized marsupial omnivores native to New Guinea. Two fossil taxa from Australia Australia, officially the C ...

***********Order

************Family †

Palorchestidae Palorchestidae is an extinct family of diprotodont marsupials whose members are sometimes referred to as marsupial tapirs due to their superficial similarity to true tapirs. Genera The family consists of the following four genera: * ''Propalor ...

************Family † Wynardiidae ************Family †

Thylacoleonidae Thylacoleonidae is a family of extinct meat-eating marsupials from Australia, referred to as marsupial lions. The best known is ''Thylacoleo carnifex'', also called the marsupial lion. The clade ranged from the Late Oligocene to the Pleistocen ...

************Family Tarsipedidae: honey possum ************Superfamily Vombatoidea *************Family †

Ilariidae The Ilariidae is a family of fossil mammals. Most ilariids are found in the middle Tertiary faunal assemblages of South Australia. '' Ilaria illumidens'' is the best-preserved representative of this extinct clade of vombatiforms. The species is ...

*************Family †

Diprotodontidae The Diprotodontidae are an extinct family of large herbivorous marsupials, endemic to Australia and New Guinea during the Oligocene through Pleistocene periods from 28.4 million to 40,000 years ago. The family consisted of large quadrupedal t ...

*************Family Vombatidae: wombats ************Superfamily

Phalangeroidea The Phalangeroidea are a superfamily of mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their y ...

*************Family

: phalangers *************Family

: pygmy possums *************Family

: rat kangaroos, kangaroos and wallabies *************Family

: gliders *************Family †

Ektopodontidae ''Ektopodon'' is an extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, alth ...

*************Family

: koala *************Family † Pilkipildridae *************Family † Miralinidae *************Family

: feather-tail glider, pen-tailed phalanger ********Magnorder

Ameridelphia Ameridelphia is traditionally a superorder that includes all marsupials living in the Americas except for the Monito del monte (''Dromiciops''). It is now regarded as a paraphyletic group. Orders The orders within this group are listed below: ...

*********Order Didelphimorphia: opossums **********Family Didelphidae: opossums **********Family † Sparassocynidae *********Order

**********Superfamily Caenolestoidea ***********Family † Sternbergiidae ***********Family

: rat or shrew opossums ***********Family † Paleothentidae ***********Family † Abderitidae **********Superfamily † Polydolopoidea ***********Family † Sillustaniidae ***********Family † Polydolopidae ***********Family † Prepidolopidae ***********Family † Bonapartheriidae **********Superfamily † Argyrolagoidea ***********Family † Argyrolagidae ***********Family † Patagoniidae ***********Family †

Groeberiidae Groeberiidae is a family of strange non- placental mammals from the Eocene and Oligocene epochs of Patagonia, Argentina and Chile, South America. Originally classified as paucituberculate marsupials, they were suggested to be late represent ...

**********Superfamily † Caroloameghinioidea ***********Family † Glasbiidae ***********Family † Caroloameghiniidae *********Order †

Sparassodonta Sparassodonta (from Greek to tear, rend; and , gen. , ' tooth) is an extinct order of carnivorous metatherian mammals native to South America, related to modern marsupials. They were once considered to be true marsupials, but are now thoug ...

**********Family † Mayulestidae **********Family †

Hondadelphidae ''Hondadelphys'' is an extinct genus of carnivorous sparassodonts, known from the Middle Miocene of Colombia. The type species, ''H. fieldsi'', was described in 1976 from the fossil locality of La Venta, which hosts fossils from the Villavieja Fo ...

**********Family †

Borhyaenidae Borhyaenidae is an extinct metatherian family of low-slung, heavily built predatory mammals in the order Sparassodonta. Borhyaenids are not true marsupials, but members of a sister taxon, Sparassodonta. Like most metatherians, borhyaenids and o ...

*******Cohort

Placentalia 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 ...

: placentals ********Order † Bibymalagasia ********Magnorder

: edentates *********Order

: armadillos and relatives **********Family † Protobradidae **********Superfamily Dasypodoidea ***********Family

: armadillos ***********Family † Peltephilidae **********Superfamily † Glyptodontoidea ***********Family †

Pampatheriidae Pampatheriidae ("Pampas beasts") is an extinct family of large plantigrade armored armadillos related to extant armadillos in the order Cingulata. However, pampatheriids have existed as a separate lineage since at least the middle Eocene Mus ...

***********Family † Palaeopeltidae ***********Family †

Glyptodontidae Glyptodonts are an extinct subfamily of large, heavily armoured armadillos. They arose in South America around 48 million years ago and spread to southern North America after the continents became connected several million years ago. The best-kn ...

: glyptodonts *********Order

: anteaters, sloths, and relatives **********Family † Entelopidae **********Suborder

***********Family

: giant anteaters and relatives ***********Family

: pygmy anteater **********Suborder

Phyllophaga ''Phyllophaga'' is a very large genus (more than 900 species) of New World scarab beetles in the subfamily Melolonthinae. Common names for this genus and many other related genera in the subfamily Melolonthinae are May beetles, June bugs, and Ju ...

***********Family † Rathymotheriidae ***********Infraorder † Mylodonta ************Superfamily † Mylodontoidea *************Family †

Scelidotheriidae Scelidotheriidae is a family of extinct ground sloths within the order Pilosa, suborder Folivora and superfamily Mylodontoidea, related to the other extinct mylodontoid family, Mylodontidae, as well as to the living two-toed sloth family Ch ...

*************Family †

Mylodontidae Mylodontidae is a family of extinct South American and North American ground sloths within the suborder Folivora of order Pilosa, living from around 23 million years ago (Mya) to 11,000 years ago. This family is most closely related to another fa ...

************Superfamily † Orophodontoidea *************Family † Orophodontidae ***********Infraorder Megatheria ************Superfamily

Megatherioidea Sloths are a group of Neotropical xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of movement, tree sloths spend most of their li ...

*************Family †

Megatheriidae Megatheriidae is a family of extinct ground sloths that lived from approximately 23 mya—11,000 years ago. Megatheriids appeared during the Late Oligocene (Deseadan in the SALMA classification), some 29 million years ago, in South America. ...

: ground sloths *************Family

: two-toed sloths ************Superfamily Bradypodoidea *************Family Bradypodidae: three-toed sloths ********Magnorder

Epitheria Epitherians comprise all the placental mammals except the Xenarthra. They are primarily characterized by having a stirrup-shaped stapes in the middle ear, which allows for passage of a blood vessel. This is in contrast to the column-shaped stapes ...

: epitheres *********Superorder †

Leptictida Leptictida (''leptos iktis'' "small/slender weasel") is a possibly paraphyletic extinct order of eutherian mammals. Their classification is contentious: according to cladistic studies, they may be (distantly) related to Euarchontoglires (rodents ...

**********Family †

Gypsonictopidae ''Gypsonictops'' is an extinct genus of leptictidan mammals of the monotypic family Gypsonictopidae, which was described in 1927 by George Gaylord Simpson. Species in this genus were small mammals and the first representatives of the order L ...

**********Family † Kulbeckiidae **********Family † Didymoconidae **********Family † Leptictidae *********Superorder

Preptotheria Preptotheria is a superorder of placental mammals proposed by McKenna & Bell in their classification of mammals. Classification The Linnean taxonomy of Preptotheria according to the scheme of McKenna & Bell (1997): Cohort Placentalia Magnorder ...

**********Grandorder Anagalida ***********Family † Zambdalestidae ***********Family † Anagalidae ***********Family † Pseudictopidae ***********Mirorder Macroscelidea: elephant shrews ************Family Macroscelididae: elephant shrews ***********Mirorder Duplicidentata ************Order † Mimotonida *************Family † Mimotonidae ************Order

*************Family Ochotonidae: pikas *************Family

: rabbits ***********Mirorder Simplicidentata ************Order † Mixodontia *************Family † Eurymylidae ************Order

: rodents *************Family † Alagomyidae *************Family † Laredomyidae *************Suborder

**************Superfamily † Ischyromyoidea ***************Family † Ischyromyidae **************Superfamily Aplodontoidea ***************Family † Allomyidae ***************Family

: mountain beaver ***************Family † Mylagaulidae **************Infraorder † Theridomyomorpha ***************Family † Theridomyidae **************Infraorder

Sciurida Sciuromorpha ("squirrel-like") is a rodent clade that includes several different rodent families. It includes all members of the Sciuridae (the squirrel family) as well as the mountain beaver species. Traditionally, the term has been defined on ...

***************Family † Reithroparamyidae ***************Family

: squirrels **************Infraorder

***************Family † Eutypomyidae ***************Family

: beavers ***************Family † Rhizospalacidae *************Suborder

**************Family † Protoptychidae **************Infraorder Myodonta ***************Superfamily

Dipodoidea Dipodoidea is a superfamily of rodents, also known as dipodoids, found across the Northern Hemisphere. This superfamily includes over 50 species among the 16 genera in 3 families. They include the jerboas (family Dipodidae), jumping mice (famil ...

****************Family † Armintomyidae ****************Family

: jumping mice, jerboas ***************Superfamily

Muroidea The Muroidea are a large superfamily of rodents, including mice, rats, voles, hamsters, lemmings, gerbils, and many other relatives. Although the Muroidea originated in Eurasia, they occupy a vast variety of habitats on every continent except A ...

****************Family † Simimyidae ****************Family

: rats, mice, and relatives **************Infraorder Glirimorpha ***************Family

Myoxidae A dormouse is a rodent of the family Gliridae (this family is also variously called Myoxidae or Muscardinidae by different taxonomists). Dormice are nocturnal animals found in Africa, Asia, and Europe. They are named for their long, dormant hibe ...

: dormice **************Infraorder Geomorpha ***************Superfamily † Eomyoidea ****************Family †

Eomyidae Eomyidae is a family (biology), family of extinct rodents from North America and Eurasia related to modern day pocket gophers and Heteromyidae, kangaroo rats. They are known from the Middle Eocene to the Late Miocene in North America and from the ...

***************Superfamily

Geomyoidea Geomyoidea is a superfamily of rodent that contains the pocket gophers ( Geomyidae), the kangaroo rats and mice ( Heteromyidae), and their fossil relatives. Characteristics Although dissimilar in overall appearance, gophers have been united wit ...

****************Family † Florentiamyidae ****************Family Geomyidae: pocket gophers, pocket mice, and kangaroo rats *************Suborder

**************Superfamily Pedetoidea ***************Family † Parapedetidae ***************Family

: springhaas **************Superfamily Anomaluroidea ***************Family † Zegdoumyidae ***************Family Anomaluridae: scaly-tailed squirrels *************Suborder Sciuravida **************Family † Ivanantoniidae **************Family † Sciuravidae **************Family † Chapattimyidae **************Family † Cylindrodontidae **************Family Ctenodactylidae: gundis *************Suborder Hystricognatha **************Family † Tsaganomyidae **************Infraorder

Hystricognathi The Hystricognathi are an infraorder of rodents, distinguished from other rodents by the bone structure of their skulls. The masseter medialis (a jaw muscle) passes partially through a hole below each eye socket (called the infraorbital foramen) ...

***************Family Hystricidae: Old World porcupines ***************Family Erethizontidae: New World porcupines ***************Family †

Myophiomyidae Myophiomyidae is an extinct family of Old World The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europ ...

***************Family †

Diamantomyidae Diamantomyidae is a family of extinct hystricognath rodents from Africa and Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, ...

***************Family †

Phiomyidae The Phiomyidae are a family of prehistoric rodents from Africa and Eurasia. A 2011 study placed ''Gaudeamus'' in a new family, Gaudeamuridae. Genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of li ...

***************Family †

Kenyamyidae Kenyamyidae is an extinct family of rodents from Africa that lived in the Lower Miocene era. There are two genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well ...

***************Family

: rock rats ***************Family

: cane rats ***************Parvorder Bathyergomorphi ****************Family Bathyergidae: mole-rats ****************Family †

Bathyergoididae ''Bathyergoides'' is an extinct genus of rodent from Africa thought to be related to the modern blesmols. It is the only member of the family Bathyergoididae. Fossils of ''Bathyergoides neotertiarius'' were recovered from the Early Miocene Elis ...

***************Parvorder Caviida ****************Superfamily

Cavioidea Caviomorpha is the rodent infraorder or parvorder that unites all New World hystricognaths. It is supported by both fossil and molecular evidence. The Caviomorpha was for a time considered to be a separate order outside the Rodentia, but is now a ...

*****************Family Agoutidae: agoutis and pacas *****************Family †

Eocardiidae The Eocardiidae are an extinct family of caviomorph rodents from South America. The family is probably ancestral to the living family Caviidae, which includes cavies, maras, and capybaras and their relatives. McKenna and Bell (1997) divided eoca ...

*****************Family

: pacarana *****************Family

: cavies *****************Family

Hydrochoeridae Hydrochoerinae is a subfamily of Caviidae, consisting of two living genera, ''Hydrochoerus The genus ''Hydrochoerus'' contains two living and two extinct species of rodents from South America, the Caribbean island of Grenada, California and P ...

: capybara ****************Superfamily

Octodontoidea Caviomorpha is the rodent infraorder or parvorder that unites all New World hystricognaths. It is supported by both fossil and molecular evidence. The Caviomorpha was for a time considered to be a separate order outside the Rodentia, but is ...

*****************Family

: degus, tuco-tucos *****************Family

: spiny rats, nutria *****************Family Capromyidae: hutias *****************Family †

****************Superfamily

Chinchilloidea Caviomorpha is the rodent infraorder or parvorder that unites all New World hystricognaths. It is supported by both fossil and molecular evidence. The Caviomorpha was for a time considered to be a separate order outside the Rodentia, but is now ...

*****************Family

: chinchillas, viscachas *****************Family †

Neoepiblemidae The Neoepiblemidae are an extinct family of hystricognath rodents from South America. The genera '' Dabbenea'' and '' Perumys'' are now included in ''Phoberomys''. The delineation between Neoepiblemidae and Dinomyidae has historically been uncl ...

*****************Family Abrocomidae: rat chinchillas **********Grandorder

***********Order

Cimolesta Cimolesta is an extinct order of non-placental eutherian mammals. Cimolestans had a wide variety of body shapes, dentition and lifestyles, though the majority of them were small to medium-sized general mammals that bore superficial resemblances ...

- pangolins and relatives ************Family † Palaeoryctidae ************Suborder † Didelphodonta *************Family † Cimolestidae ************Suborder † Apatotheria *************Family †

Apatemyidae Apatemyidae is an extinct family of placental mammals that took part in the first placental evolutionary radiation together with other early mammals such as the leptictids. Their relationships to other mammal groups are controversial; a 2010 stu ...

************Suborder †

Taeniodonta Taeniodonta ("banded teeth") is an extinct early group of cimolestid mammals known from the Maastrichtian to the Eocene. Taeniodonts evolved quickly into highly specialized digging animals, and varied greatly in size, from rat-sized to species ...

*************Family †

Stylinodontidae Taeniodonta ("banded teeth") is an extinct early group of cimolestid mammals known from the Maastrichtian to the Eocene. Taeniodonts evolved quickly into highly specialized digging animals, and varied greatly in size, from rat-sized to species ...

************Suborder † Tillodonta *************Family † Tillotheriidae ************Suborder †

Pantodonta Pantodonta is an extinct suborder (or, according to some, an order) of eutherian mammals. These herbivorous mammals were one of the first groups of large mammals to evolve (around 66 million years ago) after the end of the Cretaceous. The la ...

*************Family † Wangliidae *************Superfamily † Bemalambdoidea **************Family † Harpyodidae **************Family †

Bemalambdidae Bemalambdidae is an extinct family of pantodont mammals known from Early and Middle Paleocene of China. Description The bemalambdids are, along with '' Harpyodus'' and '' Alcidedorbignya'', the most primitive pantodonts. ''Hypsilolambda'' is k ...

*************Superfamily †

Pantolambdoidea Pantodonta is an extinct suborder (or, according to some, an order) of eutherian mammals. These herbivorous mammals were one of the first groups of large mammals to evolve (around 66 million years ago) after the end of the Cretaceous. The las ...

**************Family † Pastoralodontidae **************Family †

Titanoideidae ''Titanoides'' is an extinct genus of pantodont mammal that lived in North Dakota and as far north as central Alberta. They were up to long and up to in weight, being the largest mammals of their habitat, a tropical swampland where the ma ...

**************Family † Pantolambdidae **************Family † Barylambdidae **************Family † Cyriacotheriidae **************Family † Pantolambdodontidae *************Superfamily † Coryphodontoidea **************Family †

Coryphodontidae Coryphodontidae is an extinct family of pantodont mammals known from the Late Paleocene to the Middle Eocene of Eurasia and North America. The type genus ''Coryphodon'' is known from around the Paleocene-Eocene transition in Europe, western Uni ...

************Suborder † Pantolesta *************Family † Pantolestidae *************Family † Paroxyclaenidae *************Family †

Ptolemaiidae Ptolemaiida is a taxon of wolf-sized afrothere mammals that lived in northern and eastern Africa during the Paleogene. The oldest fossils are from the latest Eocene strata of the Jebel Qatrani Formation, near the Fayum oasis in Egypt. A tooth is ...

************Suborder

*************Family †

Epoicotheriidae Epoicotheriidae ("strange beasts") is an extinct family of insectivorous mammals which were endemic to North America from the early Eocene to the early Oligocene 55.8—30.9 Ma existing for approximately . Epoicotheriids were highly specialized ...

*************Family † Metacheiromyidae *************Family

: pangolins ************Suborder † Ernanodonta *************Family †

Ernanodontidae Ernanodontidae ("sprouts of toothless animals") is an extinct family of insectivorous stem-pangolins which were endemic to Asia from the middle Paleocene to the early Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about ...

***********Order †

Creodonta Creodonta ("meat teeth") is a former order of extinct carnivorous placental mammals that lived from the early Paleocene to the late Miocene epochs in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Originally thought to be a single group of animals an ...

: creodonts ************Family †

Hyaenodontidae Hyaenodontidae ("hyena teeth") is a family of extinct predatory mammals from extinct superfamily Hyaenodontoidea within extinct order Hyaenodonta. Hyaenodontids arose during the early Eocene and persisted well into the early Miocene. Fossils of ...

************Family †

Oxyaenidae Oxyaenidae ("sharp hyenas") is a family of extinct carnivorous placental mammals. Traditionally classified in order Creodonta, this group is now classified in its own order Oxyaenodonta ("sharp tooth hyenas") within clade Pan-Carnivora in miror ...

***********Order

************Suborder

*************Family †

Viverravidae Viverravidae ("ancestors of viverrids") is an extinct monophyletic family of mammals from extinct superfamily Viverravoidea within the clade Carnivoramorpha, that lived from the early Palaeocene to the late Eocene in North America, Europe and ...

*************Family †

Nimravidae Nimravidae is an extinct family of carnivorans, sometimes known as false saber-toothed cats, whose fossils are found in North America and Eurasia. Not considered to belong to the true cats (family Felidae), the nimravids are generally considered ...

*************Family

: cats *************Family

: civets, Asiatic palm civets *************Family

: mongooses *************Family Hyaenidae: hyaenas, aardwolf *************Family Nandiniidae: African palm civets ************Suborder

*************Family †

Miacidae Miacids are extinct primitive carnivoramorphans within the family Miacidae that lived during the Paleocene and Eocene epochs, about 62–34 million years ago. Miacids existed for approximately . Miacids are thought to have evolved into the ...

*************Infraorder Cynoidea **************Family

: dogs *************Infraorder

Arctoidea Arctoidea is a clade of mostly carnivorous mammals which include the extinct Hemicyonidae (dog-bears), and the extant Musteloidea (weasels, raccoons, skunks, red pandas), Pinnipedia (seals, sea lions), and Ursidae (bears), found in all contin ...

**************Parvorder Ursida ***************Superfamily †Amphicyonoidea ****************Family †

Amphicyonidae Amphicyonidae is an extinct Family (biology), family of Terrestrial animal, terrestrial carnivorans belonging to the suborder Caniformia. They first appeared in North America in the middle Eocene (around 45 mya), spread to Europe by the late Eoc ...

***************Superfamily Ursoidea ****************Family

: bears ****************Family †

Hemicyonidae Hemicyoninae is an extinct subfamily of Ursidae, often called dog bears (literally "half dog" ( Greek: )). They were bear-like carnivorans living in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia during the Oligocene through Miocene epochs 33.9– ...

***************Superfamily

Phocoidea The earless seals, phocids or true seals are one of the three main groups of mammals within the seal lineage, Pinnipedia. All true seals are members of the family Phocidae (). They are sometimes called crawling seals to distinguish them from t ...

****************Family Otariidae: eared seals ****************Family Phocidae: seals, walrus **************Parvorder

Mustelida Arctoidea is a clade of mostly carnivorous mammals which include the extinct Hemicyonidae (dog-bears), and the extant Musteloidea (weasels, raccoons, skunks, red pandas), Pinnipedia (seals, sea lions), and Ursidae (bears), found in all contin ...

***************Family

: weasels, skunks, and relatives ***************Family

: ringtails, olingos, kinkajou, raccoons, coatis, red panda **********Grandorder

Lipotyphla Lipotyphla is a formerly used order of mammals, including the members of the order Eulipotyphla (i.e. the solenodons, family Solenodontidae; hedgehogs and gymnures, family Erinaceidae; desmans, moles, and shrew-like moles, family Talpidae; and tru ...

***********Family †

Adapisoriculidae Adapisoriculidae is an extinct family of non-placental eutherian mammals present during the Paleogene and possibly the Late Cretaceous. They were once thought to be members of the order Erinaceomorpha, closely related to the hedgehog family (Eri ...

************Order Chrysochloridea *************Family

: golden moles ************Order

Erinaceomorpha Erinaceidae is a family in the order Eulipotyphla, consisting of the hedgehogs and moonrats. Until recently, it was assigned to the order Erinaceomorpha, which has been subsumed with the paraphyletic Soricomorpha into Eulipotyphla. Eulipotyphla ...

*************Family † Sespedectidae *************Family †

Amphilemuridae The Amphilemuridae are a family of extinct mammals belonging to the order Eulipotyphla, from the Eocene of Europe and North America. Description Amphilemurids were generally small in size and may have resembled moonrats in life. Some species had ...

*************Family † Adapisoricidae *************Family † Creotarsidae *************Superfamily Erinaceoidea **************Family

: hedgehogs and relatives *************Superfamily Talpoidea **************Family † Proscalopidae **************Family

: moles **************Family †

Dimylidae ''Dimylus'' is an extinct genus of insectivore mammal. The creature probably resembled the modern desman in terms of size (10–20 cm in length) and physical appearance, possessing a proboscis. Its knobby teeth were small (no longer than ...

************Order

Soricomorpha Soricomorpha (from Greek "shrew-form") is a formerly used taxon within the class of mammals. In the past it formed a significant group within the former order Insectivora. However, Insectivora was shown to be polyphyletic and various new orders ...

*************Family † Otlestidae *************Family † Geolabididae *************Superfamily Soricoidea **************Family † Nesophontidae: recently extinct west Indian shrews **************Family † Micropternodontidae **************Family † Apternodontidae **************Family Solenodontidae: solenodons **************Family † Plesiosoricidae **************Family † Nyctitheriidae **************Family Soricidae: shrews *************Superfamily Tenrecoidea **************Family Tenrecidae: tenrecs **********Grandorder

Archonta The Archonta are a now-abandoned group of mammals, considered a superorder in some classifications, which consists of these orders: *Primates *Plesiadapiformes (extinct primate-like archontans) * Scandentia (treeshrews) * Dermoptera (colugos) Whi ...

***********Order

: bats ************Suborder Megachiroptera *************Family Pteropodidae: flying foxes ************Suborder Microchiroptera *************Family † Archaeonycteridae *************Family † Paleochiropterygidae *************Family † Hassianycterididae *************Family

: sac-winged bats *************Infraorder Yinochiroptera **************Superfamily Rhinopomatoidea ***************Family Rhinopomatidae: mouse-tailed bats ***************Family Craseonycteridae: bumblebee bats **************Superfamily

Rhinolophoidea Rhinolophoidea is a superfamily of bats. It contains the following families: Craseonycteridae, Hipposideridae, Megadermatidae, Rhinolophidae, Rhinonycteridae, and Rhinopomatidae. It is one of two superfamilies that comprise the suborder Yinp ...

***************Family

: false vampire bats ***************Family Nycteridae: hispid bats ***************Family Rhinolophidae: horseshoe and Old World leaf-nosed bats *************Infraorder

Yangochiroptera Yangochiroptera, or Vespertilioniformes, is a suborder of Chiroptera that includes most of the microbat families, except the Rhinopomatidae, Rhinolophidae, Hipposideridae, and Megadermatidae. These other families, plus the megabats, are seen ...

**************Family

: New Zealand short-tailed bats **************Superfamily

Noctilionoidea Noctilionoidea is a superfamily of bats containing seven families: Thyropteridae, Furipteridae, Noctilionidae, Mormoopidae, Phyllostomidae, Myzopodidae, and Mystacinidae. It is one of three superfamilies in the suborder Yangochiroptera, t ...

***************Family Noctilionidae: fishing bats ***************Family

: spectacled bats ***************Family Phyllostomidae: New World leaf-nosed and vampire bats **************Superfamily

Vespertilionoidea Vespertilionoidea is a superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP super ...

***************Family † Philisidae ***************Family Molossidae: free-tailed bats ***************Family

: funnel-eared bats ***************Family

: smoky bats ***************Family

: New World sucker-footed bats ***************Family Myzopodidae: Old World sucker-footed bats ***************Family

: common bats ***********Order

: primates ************Family †

Purgatoriidae Purgatoriidae is a basal plesiadapiform family that includes, '' Purgatorius'' and '' Ursolestes''. Purgatoriids are thought to represent the earliest members of the Plesiadapiformes Plesiadapiformes ("Adapid-like" or "near Adapiformes") is ...

************Family † Microsyopidae ************Family †

Micromomyidae Micromomyidae (Micromomids) is a family of extinct plesiadapiform mammals that include some of the earliest known primates. The family includes five genera that lived from the Paleocene epoch into the early Eocene epoch. Micromomyids first appe ...

************Family † Picromomyidae ************Family †

Plesiadapidae Plesiadapidae is a family of plesiadapiform mammals related to primates known from the Paleocene and Eocene of North America, Europe, and Asia. Plesiadapids were abundant in the late Paleocene, and their fossils are often used to establish th ...

************Family † Palaechthonidae ************Family † Picrodontidae ************Suborder Dermoptera *************Family † Paramomyidae *************Family † Plagiomenidae *************Family † Mixodectidae *************Family Galeopithecidae: colugos ************Suborder Euprimates *************Infraorder

Strepsirrhini Strepsirrhini or Strepsirhini (; ) is a suborder of primates that includes the lemuriform primates, which consist of the lemurs of Madagascar, galagos ("bushbabies") and pottos from Africa, and the lorises from India and southeast Asia. Collec ...

**************Family † Plesiopithecidae **************Superfamily Daubentonioidea ***************Family

: aye-aye **************Superfamily Lemuroidea ***************Family †

Adapidae Adapidae is a family of extinct primates that primarily radiated during the Eocene epoch between about 55 and 34 million years ago. Adapid systematics and evolutionary relationships are controversial, but there is fairly good evidence from the ...

***************Family

: lemurs **************Superfamily Loroidea ***************Family

: lorises and galagos ***************Family

: dwarf lemurs **************Superfamily Indroidea ***************Family † Archaeolemuridae ***************Family † Palaeopropithecidae ***************Family

: indris and sifakas *************Infraorder

Haplorhini Haplorhini (), the haplorhines (Greek for "simple-nosed") or the "dry-nosed" primates, is a suborder of primates containing the tarsiers and the simians (Simiiformes or anthropoids), as sister of the Strepsirrhini ("moist-nosed"). The name is som ...

**************Parvorder

Tarsiiformes Tarsiiformes are a group of primates that once ranged across Europe, northern Africa, Asia, and North America, but whose extant species are all found in the islands of Southeast Asia. Tarsiers (family Tarsiidae) are the only living members of ...

***************Superfamily † Carpolestoidea ****************Family †

Carpolestidae Carpolestidae is a family of primate-like Plesiadapiformes that were prevalent in North America and Asia from the mid Paleocene through the early Eocene. Typically, they are characterized by two large upper posterior premolars and one large lowe ...

***************Superfamily Tarsioidea ****************Family †

Omomyidae Omomyidae is a group of early primates that radiated during the Eocene epoch between about (mya). Fossil omomyids are found in North America, Europe & Asia making it one of two groups of Eocene primates with a geographic distribution spanning ...

****************Family † Microchoeridae ****************Family † Afrotarsiidae ****************Family

: tarsiers **************Parvorder

Anthropoidea The simians, anthropoids, or higher primates are an infraorder (Simiiformes ) of primates containing all animals traditionally called monkeys and apes. More precisely, they consist of the parvorders New World monkeys (Platyrrhini) and Catarrh ...

***************Family †

Eosimiidae Eosimiidae is the possible family of extinct primates believed to be the earliest simians. Taxonomy When they were discovered the possibility that Eosimians were outside and ancestral to Simians was considered (Culotta 1992), but subsequent w ...

***************Family †

Parapithecidae Parapithecidae is an extinct family of primates which lived in the Eocene and Oligocene periods in Egypt. Eocene fossils from Myanmar are sometimes included in the family in addition. They showed certain similarities in dentition to Condylarthra, ...

***************Superfamily

Cercopithecoidea Old World monkey is the common English name for a family of primates known taxonomically as the Cercopithecidae (). Twenty-four genera and 138 species are recognized, making it the largest primate family. Old World monkey genera include baboons ...

****************Family †

Pliopithecidae The family Pliopithecidae is an extinct family of fossil catarrhines and members of the Pliopithecoidea superfamily. Their anatomy combined primitive features such as a small braincase, a long snout, and a tail. At the same time, they possess ...

****************Family

: Old World monkeys including colobuses ****************Family

: humans, greater apes, lesser apes ***************Superfamily Callitrichoidea ****************Family

: marmosets ****************Family

: New World monkeys ***********Order Scandentia ************Family Tupaiidae: tree shrews **********Grandorder

: ungulates ***********Order

************Family

: aardvark ***********Order †

Dinocerata Dinocerata (from the Greek (), "terrible", and (), "horn") is an extinct order of plant-eating hoofed mammals with horns and protuberant canine teeth. Classification A 2015 phylogenetic study recovered Dinocerata as closely related to ''C ...

************Family †

Uintatheriidae Uintatheriidae is a family of extinct ungulate mammals that includes ''Uintatherium''. Uintatheres belong to the order Dinocerata, one of several extinct orders of primitive hoofed mammals that are sometimes united in the Condylarthra. Uintath ...

***********Mirorder

Eparctocyona Eparctocyona is a clade of placental mammals comprising the artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates), cetacea Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aq ...

************Order † Procreodi *************Family † Oxyclaenidae *************Family †

Arctocyonidae Arctocyonidae (from Greek '' arktos'' ''kyôn'', "bear/dog-like") has been defined as an extinct family of unspecialized, primitive mammals with more than 20 genera. Animals assigned to this family were most abundant during the Paleocene, but e ...

************Order †

Condylarthra Condylarthra is an informal group – previously considered an order – of extinct placental mammals, known primarily from the Paleocene and Eocene epochs. They are considered early, primitive ungulates. It is now largely considered to be a was ...

*************Family †

Hyopsodontidae Hyopsodontidae is an extinct family of primitive mammals from the order Condylarthra, living from the Paleocene to the Eocene in North America and Eurasia. Condylarthra is now thought to be a wastebasket taxon; hyopsodontids have occasionally ...

*************Family † Mioclaenidae *************Family †

Phenacodontidae Phenacodontidae is an extinct family of large herbivorous mammals traditionally placed in the “wastebasket taxon” Condylarthra, which may instead represent early-stage perissodactyls. They lived in the Paleocene and Eocene epochs (about 6 ...

*************Family † Periptychidae *************Family † Peligrotheriidae *************Family †

Didolodontidae Didolodontidae is a possibly paraphyletic family of "condylarth" mammals known from the Paleocene to the late Eocene of South America.J. N. Gelfo. 2010. The "condylarth" Didolodontidae from Gran Barranca: history of the bunodont South American ma ...

************Order † Arctostylopida *************Family † Arctostylopidae ************Order Cete: whales and relatives *************Suborder † Acreodi **************Family †

Triisodontidae Triisodontidae is an extinct, probably paraphyletic, or possibly invalid family of mesonychian placental mammals. Most triisodontid genera lived during the Paleocene in North America, but the genus ''Andrewsarchus'' (if it is a mesonychian, an ...

**************Family †

Mesonychidae Mesonychidae (meaning "middle claws") is an extinct family of small to large-sized omnivorous-carnivorous mammals. They were endemic to North America and Eurasia during the Early Paleocene to the Early Oligocene, and were the earliest group of l ...

: mesonychids **************Family †

Hapalodectidae Hapalodectidae (literal translation 'soft biters': ('soft, tender'), ('biter')) is an extinct family of relatively small-bodied () mesonychian placental mammals from the Paleocene and Eocene of North America and Asia. Hapalodectids differ fr ...

*************Suborder Cetacea **************Infraorder †

Archaeoceti Archaeoceti ("ancient whales"), or Zeuglodontes in older literature, is a paraphyletic group of primitive cetaceans that lived from the Early Eocene to the late Oligocene (). Representing the earliest cetacean radiation, they include the initial ...

***************Family †

Basilosauridae Basilosauridae is a family of extinct cetaceans. They lived during the middle to the early late Eocene and are known from all continents, including Antarctica. They were probably the first fully aquatic cetaceans.Buono M, Fordyce R.E., Marx F. ...

***************Family †

Protocetidae Protocetidae, the protocetids, form a diverse and heterogeneous group of extinct cetaceans known from Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, and North America. Description There were many genera, and some of these are very well known (e.g., '' ...

***************Family †

Remingtonocetidae Remingtonocetidae is a diverse family of early aquatic mammals of the order Cetacea. The family is named after paleocetologist Remington Kellogg. Description Remingtonocetids have long and narrow skulls with the external nare openings locate ...

**************Infraorder Autoceta ***************Family † Agorophiidae ***************Superfamily † Squalodontoidea ****************Family †

Squalodontidae Squalodontidae or the shark-toothed dolphins is an extinct family of large toothed whales who had long narrow jaws. Squalodontids are known from all continents except Antarctica, from the Oligocene to the Neogene, but they had a maximal diversit ...

****************Family † Rhabdosteidae ***************Parvorder

****************Family †

Aetiocetidae Aetiocetidae is an extinct family of toothed baleen whales known from the Oligocene. The whales are from the North Pacific Ocean and ranged in size from long. Many of the described specimens were discovered from the Upper Oligocene of the Ja ...

****************Family †

Mammalodontidae Mammalodontidae is a family of extinct whales known from the Oligocene of Australia and New Zealand. There are currently two genera in this family: ''Janjucetus'' and ''Mammalodon''. After a new cladistic analysis by Fitzgerald (2010), ''Janju ...

****************Family †

****************Family

: rorquals and grey whales ****************Family

: right and bowhead whales ***************Parvorder

****************Superfamily

Physeteroidea Physeteroidea is a superfamily that includes three extant species of whales: the sperm whale, in the genus ''Physeter'', and the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale, in the genus ''Kogia''. In the past, these genera have sometimes been unit ...

*****************Family Physeteridae: sperm whales ****************Superfamily Hyperoodontoidea *****************Family Hyperoodontidae: beaked whales ****************Superfamily

Platanistoidea River dolphins are a polyphyletic group of fully aquatic mammals that reside exclusively in freshwater or brackish water. They are an informal grouping of dolphins, which itself is a paraphyletic group within the infraorder Cetacea. Extant ri ...

*****************Family Platanistidae: river dolphins ****************Superfamily

Delphinoidea Delphinoidea is the largest group of toothed whales with 66 genera in 6 families. The largest living member of the superfamily is the killer whale, which can reach 6 tons, while the smallest is the vaquita. Taxonomy Based on McGowen ''et al''. ...

*****************Family

: dolphins *****************Family Pontoporiidae: La Plata River dolphin *****************Family

: baiiji *****************Family

: Amazon River dolphin *****************Family † Kentridontidae *****************Family

: beluga and narwhal *****************Family † Odobenocetopsidae *****************Family † Dalpiazinidae *****************Family † Acrodelphinidae *****************Family

: porpoises *****************Family † Albireonidae *****************Family † Hemisyntrachelidae ************Order

: even-toed ungulates *************Suborder

**************Family †

Raoellidae The Raoellidae, previously grouped within Helohyidae, are an extinct family of semiaquatic digitigrade artiodactyls in the clade Whippomorpha. Fossils of raoellids are found in Eocene strata of South and Southeast Asia. An exceptionally compl ...

**************Family † Choeropotamidae **************Superfamily Suoidea ***************Family

: pigs ***************Family Tayassuidae: peccaries ***************Family † Santheriidae ***************Family

: hippos **************Superfamily † Dichobunoidea ***************Family †

Dichobunidae Dichobunidae is an extinct family of basal artiodactyl mammals from the early Eocene to late Oligocene of North America, Europe, and Asia. The Dichobunidae include some of the earliest known artiodactyls, such as '' Diacodexis''. Description ...

***************Family † Cebochoeridae ***************Family † Mixtotheriidae *****************Family †

Helohyidae Helohyidae were a group of artiodactyl mammals. They were most prominent in the mid-to-upper Eocene (~50 to 39 million years ago). Description Helohyidae share vague similarities to present-day pigs, though were slimmer in build. They posses ...

**************Superfamily † Anthracotherioidea ***************Family † Haplobunodontidae ***************Family †

Anthracotheriidae Anthracotheriidae is a paraphyletic family of extinct, hippopotamus-like artiodactyl ungulates related to hippopotamuses and whales. The oldest genus, '' Elomeryx'', first appeared during the middle Eocene in Asia. They thrived in Africa and Eur ...

**************Superfamily † Anoplotherioidea ***************Family † Dacrytheriidae ***************Family † Anoplotheriidae ***************Family † Cainotheriidae **************Superfamily †Oreodontoidea ***************Family † Agriochoeridae ***************Family †

Oreodont Merycoidodontoidea, sometimes called "oreodonts" or " ruminating hogs", is an extinct superfamily of prehistoric cud-chewing artiodactyls with short faces and fang-like canine teeth. As their name implies, some of the better known forms were g ...

idae **************Superfamily †Entelodontoidea ***************Family † Entelodontidae *************Suborder

**************Family † Xiphodontidae **************Superfamily Cameloidea ***************Family

: camels and llamas ***************Family † Oromerycidae **************Superfamily † Protoceratoidea ***************Family †

Protoceratidae Protoceratidae is an extinct family of herbivorous North American artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates) that lived during the Eocene through Pliocene at around 46.2—4.9 Mya, existing for about 41 million years. Classification Protoceratidae wa ...

*************Suborder

**************Family † Amphimerycidae **************Family †

Hypertragulidae Hypertragulidae is an extinct family of artiodactyl ungulates that lived in North America, Europe, and Asia from the Eocene until the Miocene, living 46.2—13.6 million years ago, existing for about 33 million years. The Hypertragulidae are b ...

**************Family

: mouse deer **************Family † Leptomerycidae **************Family † Bachitheriidae **************Family † Lophiomerycidae **************Family †

Gelocidae The Gelocidae are an extinct group of hornless ruminantia that are estimated to have lived during the Eocene and Oligocene epochs, from 36 MYA to 6 MYA. The family generally includes extinct hornless ruminants which do not belong to similar fami ...

**************Superfamily Cervoidea ***************Family

: musk deer ***************Family

: pronghorn ***************Family †

Palaeomerycidae The Palaeomerycidae are an extinct family of ruminants in the order Artiodactyla. Palaeomerycids lived in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia from 33 to 4.9 million years ago (from the Late Eocene to Pliocene epochs), existing for about 28 mi ...

***************Family † Hoplitomerycidae ***************Family

: deer **************Superfamily

Giraffoidea Giraffoidea is a superfamily that includes the families Climacoceratidae, Antilocapridae, and Giraffidae. The only extant members in the superfamily are the pronghorn, giraffe, and okapi. The Climacoceratidae are also placed in the superfami ...

***************Family †

Climacoceratidae Climacoceratidae is a family of superficially deer-like artiodactyl ungulates which lived in the Miocene epoch in Africa. They are close to the ancestry of giraffes, with some genera, such as ''Prolibytherium'', originally classified as giraffes. ...

***************Family

: giraffe and okapi **************Superfamily Bovoidea ***************Family

: cattle, antelope, and relatives ***********Mirorder †

Meridiungulata South American native ungulates, commonly abbreviated as SANUs, are extinct ungulate-like mammals of controversial affinities that were indigenous to South America prior to the Great American Biotic Interchange. They comprise five major groups ...

************Family † Perutheriidae ************Family † Amilnedwardsiidae ************Order †

Litopterna Litopterna (from grc, λῑτή πτέρνα "smooth heel") is an extinct order of fossil hoofed mammals from the Cenozoic era. The order is one of the five great orders of South American ungulates that were endemic to the continent, until the G ...

*************Family † Protolipternidae *************Superfamily † Macrauchenioidea **************Family †

Macraucheniidae Macraucheniidae is a family in the extinct South American ungulate order Litopterna, that resembled various camelids. The reduced nasal bones of their skulls was originally suggested to have housed a small proboscis, similar to that of the sa ...

**************Family † Notonychopidae **************Family †

Adianthidae Adianthidae is an extinct family of litopterns that existed from the Middle Eocene ( Mustersan) to the Early Miocene (Santacrucian). Description These scansorial, viviparous animals were actively mobile and were herbivores. They were small in s ...

*************Superfamily † Proterotherioidea **************Family †

Proterotheriidae Proterotheriidae is an extinct family of fossil ungulates from the Cenozoic era that displays toe reduction. Despite resembling primitive, small horses, they were only distantly related to them, and instead belonged to the native South America ...

************Order †

Notoungulata Notoungulata is an extinct order of mammalian ungulates that inhabited South America from the early Paleocene to the Holocene, living from approximately 61 million to 11,000 years ago. Notoungulates were morphologically diverse, with forms resem ...

: notoungulates *************Suborder † Notioprogonia **************Family †

Henricosborniidae Henricosborniidae is a family of extinct notoungulate mammals known from the Late Paleocene to Middle Eocene of Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil. The name honors U.S. paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn. Description Henricosborniidae is a gr ...

**************Family †

Notostylopidae Notostylopidae is an extinct Family (biology), family comprising five genus, genera of Notoungulata, notoungulate mammals known from the Late Paleocene (Riochican) to Early Oligocene (Tinguirirican) of Argentina, Brazil and Chile in South America ...

*************Suborder † Toxodontia **************Family † Isotemnidae **************Family †

Leontiniidae Leontiniidae is an extinct family comprising eighteen genera of notoungulate mammals known from the Middle Eocene (Mustersan) to Late Miocene (Huayquerian) of South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisph ...

**************Family †

Notohippidae Notohippidae is a paraphyletic extinct family of notoungulate mammals from South America. Notohippids are known from the Eocene and Oligocene epochs.McKenna, Malcolm C., and Bell, Susan K. 1997. ''Classification of Mammals Above the Species Leve ...

**************Family †

Toxodontidae Toxodontidae is an extinct family of notoungulate mammals, known from the Oligocene to the Holocene (11,000 BP) of South America, with one genus, '' Mixotoxodon'', also known from the Pleistocene of Central America and southwestern North Ameri ...

**************Family † Homalodotheriidae *************Suborder † Typotheria **************Family † Archaeopithecidae **************Family † Oldfieldthomasiidae **************Family †

Interatheriidae Interatheriidae is an extinct family of notoungulate mammals from South America. Interatheriids are known from the Middle Eocene (Mustersan) to the Early Pliocene (Montehermosan).McKenna & Bell, 1997Linares, 2004 These animals were principally ...

**************Family † Campanorcidae **************Family † Mesotheriidae *************Suborder † Hegetotheria **************Family † Archaeohyracidae **************Family † Hegetotheriidae ************Order †

Astrapotheria Astrapotheria is an extinct order of South American and Antarctic hoofed mammals that existed from the late Paleocene to the Middle Miocene, ."The uruguaytheriine Astrapotheriidae from the rich middle Miocene Honda Group of the upper Magdalena ...

*************Family †

Eoastrapostylopidae ''Eoastrapostylops'' is an extinct genus of astrapothere that lived during the Late Paleocene in what is now Argentina. Description This animal was small in size; the skull was 9 centimeters long and the total length of the animal probably ju ...

*************Family †

Trigonostylopidae ''Trigonostylops'' is an extinct genus of South American meridiungulatan ungulate, from the Late Paleocene to Late Eocene (Itaboraian to Tinguirirican in the SALMA classification) of South America (Argentina and Peru) and Antarctica (Seymour Isla ...

*************Family †

Astrapotheriidae Astrapotheriidae is an extinct family of herbivorous South American land mammals that lived from the Late Eocene (Mustersan SALMA) to the Middle Miocene (Laventan SALMA) . The most derived of the astrapotherians, they were also the largest a ...

************Order †

Xenungulata Xenungulata ("strange ungulates") is an order of extinct and primitive South American hoofed mammals that lived from the Late Paleocene to Early Eocene ( Itaboraian to Casamayoran in the SALMA classification). Fossils of the order are known fr ...

*************Family † Carodniidae ************Order †

Pyrotheria Pyrotheria is an order of extinct meridiungulate mammals. These mastodon-like ungulates include the genera '' Baguatherium'', '' Carolozittelia'', ''Colombitherium'', '' Griphodon'', '' Propyrotherium'', '' Proticia'', and ''Pyrotherium''. T ...

*************Family † Pyrotheriidae ***********Mirorder

Altungulata Altungulata or Pantomesaxonia (''sensu'' and later authors) is an invalid clade ( mirorder) of ungulate mammals comprising the perissodactyls, hyracoids, and tethytheres ( sirenians, proboscideans, and related extinct taxa). The name "Panto ...

************Order Perissodactyla: odd-toed ungulates *************Suborder

Hippomorpha Odd-toed ungulates, mammals which constitute the taxonomic order Perissodactyla (, ), are animals—ungulates—who have reduced the weight-bearing toes to three (rhinoceroses and tapirs, with tapirs still using four toes on the front legs) ...

**************Family

: horses **************Family †

Palaeotheriidae Palaeotheriidae is an extinct family of herbivorous perissodactyl mammals related to equids. They ranged across Europe and Asia from the Eocene through to the early Oligocene 55–33 Ma, existing for approximately . Living in dense forest ...

*************Suborder

Ceratomorpha Odd-toed ungulates, mammals which constitute the taxonomic order Perissodactyla (, ), are animals— ungulates—who have reduced the weight-bearing toes to three (rhinoceroses and tapirs, with tapirs still using four toes on the front legs) ...

**************Infraorder † Selenida ***************Superfamily † Brontotherioidea ****************Family †

Brontotheriidae Brontotheriidae is a family of extinct mammals belonging to the order Perissodactyla, the order that includes horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs. Superficially, they looked rather like rhinos, although they were actually more closely related to h ...

****************Family † Anchilophidae ***************Superfamily †

Chalicotherioidea Chalicotherioidea is an extinct superfamily of clawed perissodactyls (odd-toed ungulates) that lived from the early Eocene to the early Pleistocene subepochs. Based on the fossil record they emerged and thrived largely in Eurasia, although speci ...

****************Family † Eomoropidae ****************Family †

Chalicotheriidae Chalicotheres (from Greek '' chalix'', "gravel" and '' therion'', "beast") are an extinct clade of herbivorous, odd-toed ungulate (perissodactyl) mammals that lived in North America, Eurasia, and Africa from the Middle Eocene until the Early ...

**************Infraorder

Tapiromorpha Odd-toed ungulates, mammals which constitute the taxonomic order Perissodactyla (, ), are animals—ungulates—who have reduced the weight-bearing toes to three (rhinoceroses and tapirs, with tapirs still using four toes on the front legs) ...

***************Superfamily

Rhinocerotoidea Rhinocerotoidea is a superfamily consisting of three family groups of odd-toed ungulates, three of which, the Amynodontidae, Hyracodontidae, and Paraceratheriidae, are extinct. The only extant family group is the Rhinocerotidae (true rhinocerose ...

****************Family †

Hyracodontidae The Hyracodontidae are an extinct family of rhinoceroses endemic to North America, Europe, and Asia during the Eocene through early Oligocene, living from 48.6 to 26.3 million years ago (Mya), existing about . The Hyracodontidae thrived in the ...

****************Family

: rhinoceroses ***************Superfamily

Tapiroidea Tapiroidea is a superfamily of perissodactyls which includes the modern tapir. Members of the superfamily are small to large browsing mammals, roughly pig-like in shape, with short, prehensile snouts. Their closest relatives are the other odd-toe ...

****************Family † Helaletidae ****************Family †

Isectolophidae Isectolophidae is a potentially paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, ...

****************Family †

Lophiodontidae Lophiodontidae is a family of browsing, herbivorous, mammals in the Perissodactyla suborder Ancylopoda that show long, curved and cleft claws. They lived in southern Europe during the Eocene epoch. Previously thought to be related to tapir ...

****************Family † Deperetellidae ****************Family † Lophialetidae ****************Family

: tapirs ************Order

Uranotheria Paenungulata (from Latin ''paene'' "almost" + ''ungulātus'' "having hoofs") is a clade of "sub-ungulates", which groups three extant mammal orders: Proboscidea (including elephants), Sirenia ( sea cows, including dugongs and manatees), and Hyr ...

: elephants, manatees, hyraxes, and relatives *************Suborder

***************Family †

Pliohyracidae Hyraxes (), also called dassies, are small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. Hyraxes are well-furred, rotund animals with short tails. Typically, they measure between long and weigh between . They are superficially simila ...

***************Family

: hyraxes *************Suborder †

Embrithopoda Embrithopoda ("heavy-footed") is an order of extinct mammals known from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. Most of the embrithopod genera are known exclusively from jaws and teeth dated from the late Paleocene to the late Eocene; however, the or ...

**************Family † Phenacolophidae **************Family †

Arsinoitheriidae Arsinoitheriidae is a family of hoofed mammals belonging to the extinct order Embrithopoda. Remains have been found in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Romania. When alive, they would have borne a strong but superficial resemblance to mod ...

*************Suborder

Tethytheria Tethytheria is a clade of mammals that includes the sirenians and proboscideans, as well as the extinct order Embrithopoda. Though there is strong anatomical and molecular support for the monophyly of Tethytheria, the interrelationships betwee ...

**************Infraorder

: manatees, dugong, and sea cow ***************Family †

Prorastomidae Prorastomidae is a family of extinct sirenians from Jamaica, related to the extant manatees and dugong The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three sp ...

***************Family

: dugongs ***************Family

: manatees **************Infraorder

Behemota Paenungulata (from Latin ''paene'' "almost" + ''ungulātus'' "having hoofs") is a clade of "sub-ungulates", which groups three extant mammal orders: Proboscidea (including elephants), Sirenia ( sea cows, including dugongs and manatees), and Hyr ...

***************Parvorder †

Desmostylia The Desmostylia (from Greek δεσμά ''desma'', "bundle", and στῦλος ''stylos'', "pillar") are an extinct order of aquatic mammals that existed from the early Oligocene (Rupelian) to the late Miocene (Tortonian) (). Desmostylians are ...

****************Family †

Desmostylidae Desmostylidae is an extinct family of herbivorous marine mammals belonging to the order of Desmostylia. They lived in the coastal waters of the northern Pacific Ocean from the Early Oligocene (Rupelian) through the Late Miocene (Tortonian) (33.9 ...

***************Parvorder

****************Family †

Anthracobunidae Anthracobunidae is an extinct family of stem perissodactyls that lived in the early to middle Eocene period. They were originally considered to be a paraphyletic family of primitive proboscideans possibly ancestral to the Moeritheriidae and the ...

****************Family †

Moeritheriidae ''Moeritherium'' ("the beast from Lake Moeris") is an extinct genus of primitive proboscideans. These prehistoric mammals are related to the elephant and, more distantly, sea cows and hyraxes. They lived during the Eocene epoch. Description ''M ...

****************Family †

Numidotheriidae Numidotheriidae is an extinct family of primitive proboscidean that lived from the late Paleocene to the early Oligocene periods of North Africa. Fragmentary fossils (mainly teeth) of the early Eocene genera, ''Daouitherium'' and ''Phosphatheri ...

****************Family †

Barytheriidae Barytheriidae (meaning "heavy beasts") is an extinct family of primitive proboscideans that lived during the late Eocene and early Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million ...

****************Family †

Deinotheriidae Deinotheriidae ("terrible beasts") is a family of prehistoric elephant-like proboscideans that lived during the Cenozoic era, first appearing in Africa, then spreading across southern Asia (Indo-Pakistan) and Europe. During that time, they chan ...

****************Family † Palaeomastodontidae ****************Family † Phiomiidae ****************Family †

Hemimastodontidae ''Hemimastodon'' ("half mastodont") is an extinct genus of proboscidean from the Late Miocene deposits of the Dera Bugti Beds in Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in ...

****************Superfamily ‡

Mammutoidea Mammutidae is an extinct family of proboscideans that appeared during the Oligocene epoch and survived until the start of the Holocene. The family was first described in 1922, classifying fossil specimens of the type genus ''Mammut'' ( mastodo ...

*****************Family †

Mammutidae Mammutidae is an extinct family of proboscideans that appeared during the Oligocene epoch and survived until the start of the Holocene. The family was first described in 1922, classifying fossil specimens of the type genus ''Mammut'' (mastodons) ...

: mastodons and relatives ****************Superfamily Elephantoidea *****************Family †

Gomphotheriidae Gomphotheres are any members of the diverse, extinct taxonomic family Gomphotheriidae. Gomphotheres were elephant-like proboscideans, but do not belong to the family Elephantidae. They were widespread across Afro-Eurasia and North America dur ...

: gomphotheres *****************Family

: modern elephants

Luo, Kielan-Jaworowska, and Cifelli classification

Several important fossil mammal discoveries have been made that have led researchers to question many of the relationships proposed by McKenna and Bell (1997). Additionally, researchers are subjecting taxonomic hypotheses to more rigorous

analyses of early mammal fossils. Luo et al. (2002) summarized existing ideas and proposed new ideas of relationships among mammals at the most Basal (phylogenetics), basal level. They argued that the term mammal should be defined based on characters (especially the dentary-squamosal jaw articulation) instead of a crown-based definition (the group that contains most recent common ancestor of monotremes and therians and all of its descendants). Their definition of Mammalia is roughly equal to the Mammaliaformes as defined by McKenna and Bell (1997) and other authors. They also define their taxonomic levels as clades and do not apply Rank (zoology), Linnean hierarchies. Mammalia *†''Sinoconodon'' - earliest and most basal of mammals *Unnamed clade 1 - a clade that contains all other mammals. These are characterized by determinant growth and occlusal features of the cheek teeth. **†Morganucodontidae - morganucodontids, including †''Morganucodon'', †''Megazostrodon'', and others **†Docodonta - docodonts, including †''Haldanodon'' and †''Castorocauda'' (Ji et al., 2006) **Unnamed clade 2 - a clade containing all living mammals and some fossil relatives. It is characterized by the loss of a postdentary trough and a widened braincase. ***†''Hadrocodium'' ***†''Kuehneotherium'' ***Crown-group

- the group that contains most recent common ancestor of monotremes and therians and all of its descendants. This group is defined by additional characters relating the occlusion of Molar (tooth), molars and the presence of a well-developed masseteric fossa. ****Australosphenida - a clade that contains monotremes and their fossil relatives. These fossils include †''Ambondro'', †''Asfaltomylos'', †''Ausktribosphenos'', and †''Bishops''. If correct, this clade represents an independent evolution of the tribosphenic molar in Gondwana, southern continents. **** Trechnotheria -

ns, Spalacotheriidae, spalacotheriids and their relatives. They are characterized by features of the scapula, tibia, and humerus. *****† Spalacotheriidae - including ''Akidolestes'', ''Zhangheotherium'', and ''Maotherium''. *****

- Therians, Dryolestidae, dryolestids, and their relatives. They are characterized by features of the tribosphenic molar and the angular process of the dentary. ******†

******†''Amphitherium'' - ''incertae sedis'' (it may be a prototribosphenidan) ******Prototribosphenida - Therians and fossil relatives including †''Vincelestes''. Characterized by features of the cochlea including coiling. *******†''Vincelestes'' *******

- Therians and fossil relatives including the "peramurids". Characterized by the presence of wear in the talonid of the lower molars. ********†"

" - †''Peramus'' and relatives. Known only from preserved mandibles and distinctly zatherian molars. ********Boreosphenida - Therians and fossil relatives including †''Kielantherium''. They are characterized by molar features. *********†''Kielantherium'' *********†

including †''Deltatheridium'' - ''incertae sedis'' (it may represent a metatherian) *********Crown-group

- the group that contains most recent common ancestor of marsupials and

s and all of its descendants. Characterized by a host of molar features, aspects of the alispenoid, and aspects of the talus bone, astragalus region. ****†Eutriconodonta - ''incertae sedis''. Triconodonts appear to be a member of the crown-Mammalia clade, but their relationships within it are unknown. It is also not certain that they represent a monophyly, monophyletic group. Examples include ''Repenomamus''. ***†

- ''incertae sedis''. Luo e al. (2002) argue that multituberculates cannot be confidently placed in a particular clade of mammals. They suggest that they represent either basal mammals or are sister to the Trechnotheria.

Simplified classification for non-specialists

The following classification is a simplified version based on current understanding suitable for non-specialists who want to understand how living genera are related to each other. The classification ignores differences in levels and thus cannot be used to estimate the respective distances between taxa. It also ignores taxa that became extinct in pre-historic times. Finally, English names are preferred whenever they exist. This makes it especially suited for non-specialists who wish to gain an easy overview. For the full picture, the non-simplified versions above should be consulted. *Monotremes (prototheria): echidnas and platypus **Platypus **Echidnas (tachyglossids) *Live-bearing mammals (theria) **Marsupials ***Opossums (didelphids) ***Shrew opossums (caenolestids) ***Australodelphia: Australian marsupials and monito del Monte ****Monito del Monte ****Dasyuromorphs *****Dasyurids: antechinuses, quolls, dunnarts, Tasmanian devil, and allies *****Numbat ****Peramelemorphs: bilbies and bandicoots *****Bilbies (thylacomyids) *****Bandicoots (peramelids) ****Marsupial moles (notoryctids) ****Diprotodonts *****Koala *****Wombats (vombatids) *****Phalangerids: brushtail possums and cuscuses *****Pygmy possums (burramyids) *****Honey possum *****Petaurids: striped and Leadbeater's possums, and yellow-bellied, suger, mahogany and squirrel glider *****Ringtailed possums (pseudocheirids) *****Potorids: potoroos, rat kangaroos and bettongs *****Acrobatids: feathertail glider and feather-tailed possum *****Musky rat-kangaroo *****Macropodids: kangaroos, wallabies and allies **Placentals ***Atlantic placentals (atlantogenatans) ****Afroplacentals (afrotherians) *****Afroinsectiphilians: elephant shrews, tenrecs, otter shrews, golden moles, and aardvark ******Elephant shrews (macroscelidids) ******Afrosoricids: tenrecs and golden moles *******Tenrecids: tenrecs and otter shrews *******Golden moles (chrysochlorids) ******Aardvark *****Paenungulates: hyraxes, elephants, dugongs and manatees ******Hyraxes or dassies (procaviids) ******Elephants (elephantids) ******Sirenians: dugong and manatees *******Dugong *******Manatees (trichechids) ****Xenarthrans *****Pilosans: sloths and anteaters ******Anteaters (vermilinguans) *******Silky anteater *******Myrmecophagids: giant anteater and tamanduas ******Sloths (folivorans) *******Three-toed sloths (bradypodids) *******Two-toed sloths (megalonychids) *****Armadillos (dasypodids) ***Northern placentals (boreoeutherians) ****Supraprimates (euarchontoglires) *****Euarchontans: treeshrews, colugos and primates ******Treeshrews (scandentians) *******Tupaiids: all treeshrews except pen-tailed *******Pen-tailed treeshrew ******Colugos or flying lemurs (cynocephalids) ******Primates *******Strepsirrhines: lemur- and loris-like primates ********Lemur-like primates (lemuriforms) *********Cheirogaleids: dwarf lemurs and mouse-lemurs *********Aye-aye *********True lemurs (lemurids) *********Sportive lemurs (lepilemurids) *********Indriids: woolly lemurs and allies ********Loris-like primates (lorisiforms) *********Lorisids: lorises, pottos and allies *********Galagos (galagids) *******Haplorhines: tarsiers, monkeys and apes ********Tarsiers (tarsiids) ********Anthropoid primates *********New World monkeys (platyrrhines) **********Callitrichids: marmosets and tamarins **********Cebids: capuchins and squirrel monkeys **********Aotids: night or owl monkeys **********Pitheciids: titis, sakis and uakaris **********Atelids: howler, spider, woolly spider, and woolly monkeys *********Catarrhines **********Old World monkeys (cercopithecids) **********Hominoid primates ***********Gibbons (hylobatids) ***********Great apes (hominids): incl. Humans *****Glires: pikas, rabbits, hares, and rodents ******Lagomorphs: pikas, rabbits and hares *******Leporids: rabbits and hares *******Pikas (ochotonids) ******Rodents *******Anomalure-like rodents (anomaluromorphs): Scaly-tailed squirrels and springhares ********Scaly-tailed squirrels or anomalures (anomalurids) ********Springhares (pedetids) *******Beaver-like rodents (castorimorphs) ********Beavers (castorids) ********Gopher-like rodents (geomyoid rodents) *********Pocket or true gophers (geomyids) *********Heteromyids: kangaroo rats and kangaroo mice *******Porcupine-like rodents (hystricomorphs) ********Laotian rock rat ********Gundis (ctenodactylids) ********Hystricognaths *********African mole rats (bathyergids) *********Old World porcupines (hystricids) *********Dassie rat *********Cane rats (thryonomyids) *********Cavy-like rodents (caviomorphs) **********Chinchilla rats (abrocomids) **********Hutias (capromyids) **********Cavies (caviids): incl. Guinea pigs and capybara **********Chinchillids: chinchillas and viscachas **********Tuco-tucos (ctenomyids) **********Agoutis (dasyproctids) **********Pacas (cuniculids) **********Pacarana **********Spiny rats (echymyids) **********New World porcupines (erethizontids) **********Myocastorids: nutria and coypu **********Octodonts (octodontids): Andean rock-rats, degus and viscacha-rats *******Mouse-like rodents (myomorphs) ********Dipodids: jerboas and jumping mice ********Muroid rodents *********Mouse-like hamsters (calomyscids) *********Cricetids: hamsters, New World rats and mice, voles *********Murids: true mice and rats, gerbils, spiny mice, crested rat *********Nesomyids: climbing mice, rock mice, white-tailed rat, Malagasy rats and mice *********Spiny dormice (platacanthomyids) *********Spalacids: mole rats, bamboo rats, and zokors *******Squirrel-like rodents (sciuromorphs) ********Mountain beaver ********Dormice (glirids) ********Squirrels (sciurids): incl. chipmunks, prairie dogs, and marmots ****Laurasian placentals (laurasiatherians) *****Hedgehogs (erinaceids) *****Soricomorphs: moles, shrews, solenodons ******Shrews (soricids) ******Moles (talpids) ******Solenodons (solenodontids) *****Ferungulates: ungulates, cetaceans, bats, pangolins and carnivorans ******Cetartiodactyls: even-toed ungulates and cetaceans *******Camelids: camels and llamas *******Swine (suinans): pigs and peccaries ********Pigs (suids) ********Peccaries (tayassuids) *******Cetruminantians: cetaceans, hippos and ruminants ********Cetancodonts: cetaceans and hippos *********Cetaceans: Whales, dolphins and porpoises **********Baleen whales (mysticetes) ***********Balaenids: right whales and bowhead whale ***********Rorquals (balaenopterids) ***********Gray whale ***********Pygmy right whale **********Toothed whales (odontocetes) ***********Dolphins (delphinids) ***********Monodontids: beluga and narwhal ************Beluga ************Narwhal ***********Porpoises (phocoenids) ***********Sperm whale ***********Kogiids: pygmy and dwarf sperm whale ***********River dolphins (platanistoid whales) ************Iniids: Amazon and Bolivian river dolphin ************La Plata dolphin ************Platanistids: Ganges and Indus river dolphins ***********Beaked whales (ziphids) *********Hippos (hippopotamids) ********Ruminantiamorphs: chevrotains, pronghorn, giraffes, musk deer, deer, and bovids *********Chevrotains (tragulids) *********Pecorans **********Pronghorn **********Giraffids: giraffe and okapi **********Musk deer (moschids) **********Deer (cervids) **********Bovids: cattle, goats, sheep and antelope ******Pegasoferans: bats, odd-toed ungulates, pangolins and carnivorans *******Bats (chiropterans) ********Megabats (pteropodids) ********Microbats (microchiropterans) *********Sac-winged or sheath-tailed bats (emballonurids) *********Rhinopomatoid bats **********Mouse-tailed bats (rhinopomatids) **********Bumblebee bat or Kitti's hog-nosed bat *********Rhinolophoid bats **********Horseshoe bats (rhinolophids) **********Hollow-faced or slit-faced bats (nycterids) **********False vampires (megadermatids) *********Vesper bats or evening bats (vespertilionids) *********Molossoid bats **********Free-tailed bats (molossids) **********Pallid bats (antrozoids) *********Nataloid bats **********Funnel-eared bats (natalids) **********Sucker-footed bats (myzopodids) **********Disc-winged bats (thyropterids) **********Smoky bats (furipterids) *********Noctilionoid bats **********Bulldog or fisherman bats (noctilionids) **********New Zealand short-tailed bats (mystacinids) **********Ghost-faced or moustached bats (mormoopids) **********Leaf-nosed bats (phyllostomids) *******Zooamatans: odd-toed ungulates, pangolins and carnivorans ********Odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) *********Horses (equids) *********Ceratomorphs **********Tapirs (tapirids) **********Rhinoceroses (rhinocerotids) ********Ferans *********Pangolins or scaly anteaters (manids) *********Carnivorans **********Cat-like carnivorans (feliforms) ***********African palm civet ***********Feloid carnivorans ************Asiatic linsangs (prionodontids) ************Cats (felids) ***********Viverroid carnivorans ************Viverrids: civets and allies ************Herpestoid carnivorans *************Hyaenids: hyenas and aardwolf *************Malagasy carnivorans (euplerids) *************Herpestids: mongooses and allies **********Dog-like carnivorans (caniforms) ***********Canids: dogs and allies ***********Arctoid carnivorans ************Bears (ursids) ************Musteloid carnivorans *************Red panda *************Mephitids: skunks and stink badgers *************Mustelids: weasels, martens, badgers, wolverines, minks, ferrets and otters *************Procyonids: raccoons and allies ************Pinnipeds *************Walrus *************Otariids: sea lions, eared seals, fur seals *************True seals (phocids)

References

* * Wilson, Don E. and Deeann M. Reeder (eds). (1993.) ''Mammal Species of the World''. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1206 pp. * McKenna, Malcolm C. and Bell, Susan K. (1997.) ''Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level.'' Columbia University Press, New York, 631 pp. * Nowak, Ronald M. (1999.) ''Walker's Mammals of the World'', 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1936 pp. * Vaughan, Terry A., James M. Ryan and Nicholas J. Capzaplewski. (2000.) ''Mammalogy: Fourth Edition''. Saunders College Publishing, 565 pp. (Brooks Cole, 1999) * * * {{cite journal , last1=Ji , first1=Q. , last2=Luo , first2=Z.-X. , last3=Yuan , first3=C.-X. , last4=Tabrum , first4=A. R. , year=2006 , title=A swimming mammaliaform from the Middle Jurassic and ecomorphological diversification of early mammals , journal=Science , volume=311 , issue=5764 , pages=1123–1127 , doi=10.1126/science.1123026 , pmid=16497926, bibcode=2006Sci...311.1123J , s2cid=46067702 Mammal taxonomy, Mammal classification Systems of animal taxonomy

Molecular classification of placentals

Atlantogenata Atlantogenata is a proposed clade of mammals containing the cohorts or superorders Xenarthra and Afrotheria. These groups originated and radiated in the South American and African continents, respectively, presumably in the Cretaceous. Togeth ...

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

Xenarthra Xenarthra (; from Ancient Greek ξένος, xénos, "foreign, alien" + ἄρθρον, árthron, "joint") is a major clade of placental mammals native to the Americas. There are 31 living species: the anteaters, tree sloths, and armadillos. Ex ...

Boreoeutheria Boreoeutheria (, "northern true beasts") is a magnorder of placental mammals that groups together superorders Euarchontoglires and Laurasiatheria. With a few exceptionsExceptional clades whose males lack the usual boreoeutherian scrotum are mo ...

Euarchontoglires Euarchontoglires (synonymous with Supraprimates) is a clade and a superorder of mammals, the living members of which belong to one of the five following groups: rodents, lagomorphs, treeshrews, colugos, and primates. Evolutionary affinitie ...

Laurasiatheria Laurasiatheria ("laurasian beasts") is a superorder of placental mammals that groups together true insectivores ( eulipotyphlans), bats ( chiropterans), carnivorans, pangolins ( pholidotes), even-toed ungulates ( artiodactyls), odd-toed ungula ...

Standardized textbook classification

Subclass Prototheria Prototheria (; from Greek πρώτος, ''prōtos'', first, + θήρ, ''thēr'', wild animal) is a subclass to which the orders Monotremata, Morganucodonta, Docodonta, Triconodonta and Multituberculata have been assigned, although the validity o ...

Subclass Theria Theria (; Greek: , wild beast) is a subclass of mammals amongst the Theriiformes. Theria includes the eutherians (including the placental mammals) and the metatherians (including the marsupials) but excludes the egg-laying monotremes. C ...

McKenna/Bell classification

Subclass Prototheria Prototheria (; from Greek πρώτος, ''prōtos'', first, + θήρ, ''thēr'', wild animal) is a subclass to which the orders Monotremata, Morganucodonta, Docodonta, Triconodonta and Multituberculata have been assigned, although the validity o ...

Subclass Theriiformes Theriiformes is a clade of mammals. The term was coined by Timothy B. Rowe in his doctoral dissertation, and is defined as the clade formed by the most recent common ancestor of multituberculates and theria Theria (; Greek: , wild beast) ...

Luo, Kielan-Jaworowska, and Cifelli classification

Simplified classification for non-specialists

See also

References

Subclass
Prototheria Prototheria (; from Greek πρώτος, ''prōtos'', first, + θήρ, ''thēr'', wild animal) is a subclass to which the orders Monotremata, Morganucodonta, Docodonta, Triconodonta and Multituberculata have been assigned, although the validity o ...

Subclass
Theria Theria (; Greek: , wild beast) is a subclass of mammals amongst the Theriiformes. Theria includes the eutherians (including the placental mammals) and the metatherians (including the marsupials) but excludes the egg-laying monotremes. C ...

Subclass
Prototheria Prototheria (; from Greek πρώτος, ''prōtos'', first, + θήρ, ''thēr'', wild animal) is a subclass to which the orders Monotremata, Morganucodonta, Docodonta, Triconodonta and Multituberculata have been assigned, although the validity o ...

Subclass
Theriiformes Theriiformes is a clade of mammals. The term was coined by Timothy B. Rowe in his doctoral dissertation, and is defined as the clade formed by the most recent common ancestor of multituberculates and theria Theria (; Greek: , wild beast) ...