| Proterix Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Eulipotyphla |
| Family: | Erinaceidae |
| Genus: | † Proterix Matthew, 1903 |
| Species | |
| |
Proterix is an extinct genus of erinaceid mammal from the Late Oligocene to the Early Miocene of North America.
Proterix was most likely a burrowing insectivore. [1] The original reference suggests reduced limbs may be possible, due to the unusually high number of lumbar vertebrae, but cautions that conclusions must be reserved until a complete skeleton is found. [2] This proposal was exaggerated in a popular science book by Dougal Dixon, which speculated that it may have been a limbless mammal with an armored head. [3] Though very little of the post-cranial skeleton has been found, this situation is typical for mammals and not an indicator of unusual anatomy. [4] [2]
Gymnures, also called hairy hedgehogs or moonrats, are mammals belonging to the subfamily Galericinae, in the family Erinaceidae and the order Eulipotyphla. Gymnures resemble rats but are not closely related as they are not rodents; they are instead closely related to hedgehogs, which also belong to Erinaceidae. They are thought to have appeared in Eastern Asia before their closest relatives, and changed little from the original ancestor, which is thought to have been also the ancestor of the shrews.
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 has been shown to be monophyletic; Soricomorpha is paraphyletic because both Soricidae and Talpidae share a more recent common ancestor with Erinaceidae than with solenodons.
Creodonta 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 ancestral to the modern Carnivora, this order is now usually considered a polyphyletic assemblage of two different groups, the oxyaenids and the hyaenodonts, not a natural group. Oxyaenids are first known from the Palaeocene of North America, while hyaenodonts hail from the Palaeocene of Africa.
Arsinoitherium is an extinct genus of paenungulate mammals belonging to the extinct order Embrithopoda. It is related to elephants, sirenians, and hyraxes. Arsinoitheres were superficially rhinoceros-like herbivores that lived during the Late Eocene and the Early Oligocene of North Africa from 36 to 30 million years ago, in areas of tropical rainforest and at the margin of mangrove swamps. A species described in 2004, A. giganteum, lived in Ethiopia about 27 million years ago.
Oxyaena is an extinct genus of placental mammals from extinct subfamily Oxyaeninae within extinct family Oxyaenidae, that lived in Europe, Asia and North America during the early Eocene.
Soricomorpha 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 were split off from it, including Afrosoricida, Macroscelidea, and Erinaceomorpha, with the four remaining extant and recent families of Soricomorpha shown here then being treated as a separate order. Insectivora was left empty and disbanded.
Patriofelis is an extinct genus of carnivorous placental mammals from the extinct subfamily Oxyaeninae within the extinct family Oxyaenidae. It was a large cat-like predator which lived in North America during the Bridgerian NALMA. Fossils have been found in Wyoming, Colorado, and Oregon.
Parictis is an extinct arctoid belonging to the family Subparictidae.
Miocyon is an extinct genus of placental mammals from clade Carnivoraformes, that lived in North America from the early to late Eocene.
Amphechinus is an extinct genus of hedgehog of the family Erinaceidae, which lived in Asia and Europe during the Oligocene and in North America, Africa, Asia and Europe during the Miocene. The genus contains at least 14 species. It is classified in the subfamily Erinaceinae and in the family Erinaceidae.
Leptictida is a possibly paraphyletic extinct order of eutherian mammals. Their classification is contentious: according to cladistic studies, they may be (distantly) related to Euarchontoglires, although they are more recently regarded as the first branch to split from basal eutherians. One recent large-scale cladistic analysis of eutherian mammals favored lepictidans as close to the placental crown-clade; and several other recent analyses that included data from Cretaceous non-eutherian mammals found Leptictis to belong to the superorder Afrotheria.
Proscalops is an extinct genus of insect-eating mammal. Formerly placed in the defunct order Insectivora, it is now placed with the Eulipotyphla. The first and most numerous Proscalops fossils were found in the Sharps Formation of South Dakota, near Wounded Knee. Other samples have been found in the Brule Formation of South Dakota, the Deep River Formation of Montana, and in Wyoming.
Epoicotheriidae is an extinct paraphyletic family of insectivorous placental mammals within extinct order Palaeanodonta, that lived in North America, Asia and Europe from the late Paleocene to early Oligocene. Epoicotheriids were fossorial mammals. Late Eocene/early Oligocene genera were highly specialized animals that were convergent with the talpids, golden moles and marsupial mole in the structure of their skulls and forelimbs, and would have had a similar lifestyle as subterranean burrowers.
Palaeoryctidae is an extinct family of non-specialized eutherian mammals from extinct order Palaeoryctida, that lived in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa from the late Cretaceous to the middle Eocene.
Sinopa is an extinct genus of placental mammals from extinct family Sinopidae within extinct order Hyaenodonta, that lived in North America and Asia from the early to middle Eocene.
Limnocyon is an extinct paraphyletic genus of limnocyonid hyaenodonts that lived in North America during the middle Eocene. Fossils of this animal have been found in California, Utah and Wyoming.
Machaeroidinae ("dagger-like") is an extinct subfamily of carnivorous sabre-toothed placental mammals from extinct family Oxyaenidae, that lived from the early to middle Eocene of Asia and North America. Traditionally classified as hyaenodonts, this group is now classified as a member of the family Oxyaenidae.
Palaeanodonta is an extinct clade of stem-pangolins. They were insectivorous (myrmecophagous), possibly fossorial, and lived from the middle Paleocene to early Oligocene in North America, Europe and Asia. While the taxonomic grouping of Palaeanodonta has been debated, it is widely thought that they are a sister group to pangolins.
Nyctitheriidae is a family of extinct eulipotyphlan insectivores known from the Paleocene and Eocene epochs of North America and Asia and persisting into the Oligocene of Europe. Several genera, including Nyctitherium, Paradoxonycteris, and Wyonycteris, have initially been described as bats, although the family is more frequently placed in the order Eulipotyphla.
Subparictis is an extinct genus of carnivoran mammals in the family Subparictidae that inhabited North America.
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