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Holotheria

(Infraclass)

Overview

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A taxonomic infraclass.

Photos

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Taxonomy

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The Infraclass Holotheria is a member of the Subclass Theriiformes. Here is the complete "parentage" of Holotheria:

The Infraclass Holotheria is further organized into finer groupings including:

Orders

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Afrosoricida

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Amphidontoidea

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Amphitheriida

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Anagalida

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Arctostylopida

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Artiodactyla

The even-toed ungulates form the order Artiodactyla, the group that contains the pigs, peccaries, hippopotamuses, camels, chevrotains (mouse deer), deer, giraffes, pronghorn, antelopes, sheep, goats, and cattle. They are ungulates whose weight is borne (if they have more than two toes) about equally by the third and fourth toes, rather than mostly or entirely by the third as in perissodactyls. Another key distinguishing feature is the shape of the astragalus (a bone in the ankle joint), which has a double-pulley structure in artiodactyls, giving the foot greater flexibility. [more]

Asiadelphia

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Astrapotheria

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Carnivora

The diverse Carnivora " class="IPA">/?k?rn?'v??r?/; from Latin caro (stem carn-) "flesh", + vorare "to devour") includes over 260 species of placental mammals. Its members are formally referred to as carnivorans, while the word "carnivore" (often popularly applied to members of this group) can refer to any meat-eating animal. Carnivorans are the most diverse in size of any mammalian order, ranging from the Least Weasel (Mustela nivalis), at as little as 25 grams (0.88 oz) and 11 centimetres (4.3 in), to the Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) which can weigh up to 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb), to the Southern Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina) whose adult males weigh up to 5,000 kilograms (11,000 lb) and measure up to 6.9 metres (23 ft) in length. [more]

Cete

An Order in the Kingdom Animalia. [more]

Chiroptera

Bats are in the order Chiroptera . The forelimbs of all bats are developed as wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of sustained flight (other mammals, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums and colugos, can only glide for limited distances). The word Chiroptera comes from the Greek words cheir (?e??) "hand" and pteron (pte???) "wing," as the structure of the open wing is very similar to an outspread human hand with a membrane (patagium) between the fingers that also stretches between hand and body. [more]

Cimolesta

Cimolesta (from Greek, literally, "White Clay Thieves") is an extinct of mammals. A few experts place the pangolins within Cimolesta, though most other experts prefer to place the pangolins within their own order, Pholidota. [more]

Cingulata

Armadillos are small mammals, known for having a leathery armor shell. The Dasypodidae are the only surviving family in the order Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra along with the anteaters and sloths. The word armadillo is Spanish for "little armored one". [more]

Condylarthra

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Creodonta

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Dasyuromorphia

The Dasyuromorphia (meaning "hairy tail") comprises most carnivorous marsupials, including quolls, dunnarts, the Numbat, the Tasmanian Devil, and the recently extinct Thylacine. The only exceptions are the omnivorous bandicoots (order Peramelemorphia) and the marsupial moles (which eat meat but are very different and are now accorded an order of their own, Notoryctemorphia). [more]

Deltatheroida

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Dermoptera

Colugos are gliding mammals found in South-east Asia. There are just four extant species, which make up the entire family Cynocephalidae (pronounced /sa?'n?.s?f'??l??di?/) and order Dermoptera. They are the most capable of all gliding mammals, using flaps of extra skin between their legs to glide from higher to lower locations. They are also known as cobegos or flying lemurs, though they are not true lemurs. [more]

Didelphimorphia

Didelphimorphia is the of common opossums of the Western Hemisphere. They are commonly also called possums, though that term is also applied to Australian fauna of the suborder Phalangeriformes. The Virginia Opossum is the original animal named opossum. The word comes from Algonquian wapathemwa. Opossums probably diverged from the basic South American marsupials in the late Cretaceous or early Paleocene. A sister group is Paucituberculata (shrew opossums). [more]

Dinocerata

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Diprotodontia

Diprotodontia is a large of about 120 marsupial mammals including the kangaroos, wallabies, possums, koala, wombats, and many others. Extinct diprotodonts include the rhinoceros-sized Diprotodon, and Thylacoleo, the so-called "marsupial lion". [more]

Dryolestida

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Erinaceomorpha

Erinaceidae is the only living family in the order of the Erinaceomorpha. It contains the well-known (subfamily Erinaceinae) of Eurasia and Africa and the gymnures or moonrats (subfamily Galericinae) of South-east Asia. This family was once considered part of the order Insectivora, but that polyphyletic order is now considered defunct. [more]

Haramiyoidea

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Lagomorpha

The lagomorphs are the members of the taxonomic Lagomorpha, of which there are two families, the Leporidae (hares and rabbits), and the Ochotonidae (pikas). The name of the order is derived from the Greek lagos (?a???, "hare") and morphe (µ??f?, "form"). [more]

Litopterna

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Microbiotheria

The is the only extant member of its family (Microbiotheriidae) and the only surviving member of an ancient order, the Microbiotheria. The oldest microbiothere currently recognised is Khasia cordillerensis, based on fossil teeth from Early Palaeocene deposits at Tiupampa, Bolivia. Numerous genera are known from various Palaeogene and Neogene fossil sites in South America. A number of possible microbiotheres, again represented by isolated teeth, have also been recovered from the Middle Eocene La Meseta Formation of Seymour Island, Western Antarctica. Finally, several undescribed microbiotheres have been reported from the Early Eocene Tingamarra Local Fauna in Northeastern Australia; if this is indeed the case, then these Australian fossils have important implications for our understanding of marsupial evolution and biogeography. [more]

Mimotonida

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Mixodontia

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Morganucodonta

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Notoryctemorphia

The two species of marsupial moles are rare and poorly understood burrowing of the deserts of Western Australia. [more]

Notoungulata

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Paucituberculata

The Paucituberculata contains the six surviving species of shrew opossum: small, shrew-like marsupials which are confined to the Andes mountains of South America. It is thought that the order diverged from the ancestral marsupial line very early. As recently as 20 million years ago, there were at least seven genera in South America. Today, just three genera remain. They live in inaccessible forest and grassland regions of the High Andes. Insectivores were entirely absent from South America until the Great American Interchange three million years ago, and are currently present only in the northwestern part of the continent. Shrew opossums have lost ground to the these and other placental invaders that fill the same ecological niches. Nevertheless, the ranges of shrew opossums and insectivores overlap broadly. [more]

Peramelemorphia

The 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 characteristic bandicoot shape: a plump, arch-backed body with a long, delicately tapering snout, very large upright ears, relatively long, thin legs, and a thin tail. Their size varies from about 140 grams up to 2 kilograms, but most species are about the weight of a half-grown kitten: somewhere around one kilogram. [more]

Perissodactyla

The odd-toed ungulates are and grazing mammals which compose the order Perissodactyla. This order includes horses, tapirs and rhinoceroses. The odd-toed ungulates (animals having an odd number of toes on each hoof) are usually large, have relatively simple stomachs and a large middle toe. In contrast to the Ruminant Artiodactyl ungulates, perissodactyls are hindgut fermenters; that is, they digest plant cellulose in their intestines rather than stomach. [more]

Pilosa

The order Pilosa is a group of placental , extant today only in the Americas. It includes the anteaters and sloths, including the recently extinct ground sloths. [more]

Primates

A primate is a member of the biological Primates ( pri·ma'·tez; Latin: "prime, first rank"), the group that contains lemurs, the Aye-aye, lorisids, galagos, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes, with the last category including great apes. With the exception of humans, who inhabit every continent on Earth, most primates live in tropical or subtropical regions of the Americas, Africa and Asia. Primates range in size from the 30-gram (1 oz) Pygmy Mouse Lemur to the 200-kilogram (440 lb) Mountain Gorilla. According to fossil evidence, the primitive ancestors of primates may have existed in the late Cretaceous period around 65 mya (million years ago), and the oldest known primate is the Late Paleocene Plesiadapis, c. 55–58 mya. Molecular clock studies suggest that the primate branch may be even older, originating in the mid-Cretaceous period around 85 mya. [more]

Procreodi

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Proteutheria

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Pyrotheria

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Rodentia

Rodentia is an of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing. [more]

Scandentia

The treeshrews (or tree shrews) are small native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. They make up the families Tupaiidae and Ptilocercidae and the entire order Scandentia. There are 20 species in 5 genera. Treeshrews have a higher brain to body mass ratio than humans, though this is not uncommon for animals weighing less than a kilogram.[citation needed] [more]

Soricomorpha

The Soricomorpha ("shrew-form") is a biological clade within the class of mammals. In previous years it formed a significant group within the former Insectivora order. However, that order was shown to be polyphyletic and various new orders were split off from it, including Afrosoricida (tenrecs and golden moles), Macroscelidea (elephant shrews), and Erinaceomorpha (hedgehogs and gymnures), leaving just four families as shown here, leaving Insectivora empty and disbanded. The order ranges in size from the Etruscan Shrew, at about 3.5 cm and 2 grams, to the Cuban Solenodon, at about 32 cm and 1000 grams. [more]

Spalacotherioidea

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Sparassodonta

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Therapsida

Therapsida is a group of that include mammals and their immediate evolutionary ancestors. Other than the mammals, all lineages of the therapsids are extinct, with the last known non-mammalian therapsids dying out in the Early Cretaceous period. [more]

Tubulidentata

The Aardvark (Orycteropus afer) (: from Africa) is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is sometimes called "antbear", "anteater", "Cape anteater" (after the Cape of Good Hope), "earth hog" or "earth pig". The name comes from the Afrikaans/Dutch for "earth pig" (aarde earth, varken pig), because early settlers from Europe thought it resembled a domesticated pig. However, the aardvark is not closely related to the pig; rather, it is the sole recent representative of the obscure mammalian order Tubulidentata, in which it is usually considered to form a single variable species of the genus Orycteropus, coextensive with the family Orycteropodidae. Nor is the aardvark closely related to the South American anteater, despite sharing some characteristics and a superficial resemblance. The closest living relatives of the aardvark are the elephant shrews, along with the sirenians, hyraxes, tenrecs, and elephants. [more]

Uranotheria

Paenungulata is a taxon that groups some remarkable constituting three orders: Proboscidea (elephants), Sirenia (sea cows, including dugongs and manatees), and Hyracoidea (hyraxes, such as the African Rock Hyrax, Procavia habessinica). [more]

Xenungulata

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Yalkaparidontia

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More info about the Order Yalkaparidontia may be found here.

Sources

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Last Revised: June 20, 2009
2009/06/20 07:04:53