Archonta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Archonta | |
|---|---|
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| Olive Baboon | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Subclass: | Placentalia |
| Superorder: | Archonta |
| Orders | |
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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)
Genetic analysis has suggested that the bats are not as closely related to the other groups as previously suspected. A revised category, Euarchonta, excluding bats, 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]
[edit] 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)
