Archonta
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Archonta
| Archonta | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Olive Baboon | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Subclass: | Placentalia |
| Superorder: | Archonta |
| Orders | |
|
|
The Archonta are a group of mammals considered a superorder in some classifications.
The Archonta consist of the following orders:
- Primates
- Plesiadapiformes (extinct—primate-like archontans)
- Scandentia (treeshrews)
- Dermoptera (colugos)
- Chiroptera (bats)
- Cingulata (armadillos)
Genetic analysis has suggested that the bats are not as closely related to the other groups as previously suspected. When bats were dropped the oder was replaced by Euarchonta. A revised category, Euarchonta, excluding bats and armadillos, has been proposed.[1] [2]
It has been suggested that this taxon may have arisen in the Early Cretaceous (more than one hundred million years ago) and therefore did not radiate as believed following the cretaceous/tertiary extinction of the dinosaurs, instead related to events[clarification needed] in the history of the Earth.[3]
References
- ^ Molecular phylogeny of the superorder Archonta - R M Adkins and R L Honeycutt http://www.pnas.org/content/88/22/10317.abstract (1991)
- ^ Molecules consolidate the placental mammal tree - Mark S Springer, Michael J Stanhope, Ole Madsen, Wilfried W de Jong - Trends Ecol Evol. 2004 Aug 1;19 (8):430-8 - http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:16701301
- ^ A molecular timescale for vertebrate evolution - S. Kumar & S. Blair Hedges as published in Nature http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v392/n6679/abs/392917a0.html (1998)
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