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The order Insectivora is a now-abandoned biological grouping within the class of mammals. Some species have now been moved out, leaving the remaining ones in the order Eulipotyphla within the larger clade Laurasiatheria, which makes up one of the basal clades of placental mammals.
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 Soricidae shared a more recent common ancestor with Erinaceidae than with other soricomorphs.
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 Hyenodonts, not a natural group. Oxyaenids are first known from the Palaeocene of North America, while hyaenodonts hail from the Palaeocene of Africa.
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.
Machaeroides ("dagger-like") is an extinct genus of sabre-toothed predatory placental mammals from extinct subfamily Machaeroidinae within extinct family Oxyaenidae, that lived in North America (Wyoming) from the early to middle Eocene.
Patriofelis is an extinct genus of large, cat-like predatory placental mammals from extinct subfamily Oxyaeninae within extinct family Oxyaenidae, that lived in North America from the early to middle Eocene. It was around 1.2 to 1.8 metres long, not including the tail, and weighed about 40–90 kg, making it around the same size as a modern cougar. It had short legs with broad feet, suggesting that it may have been a poor runner, but a quite good swimmer. As its close relative Oxyaena was a reasonably good climber, it is possible Patriofelis could climb as well. It is found in particular in the Bridger Basin of southwestern Wyoming and at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Oregon, both in the United States.
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 early to late Eocene.
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 or Palaeoryctoidea is an extinct group of relatively non-specialized non-placental eutherian mammals that lived in North America during the late Cretaceous and took part in the first placental evolutionary radiation together with other early mammals such as the leptictids. Some sources classified the Palaeoryctidae as a superfamily.
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.
The Bridger Formation is a geologic formation in southwestern Wyoming. It preserves fossils dating back to the Bridgerian and Uintan stages of the Paleogene Period. The formation was named by American geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden for Fort Bridger, which had itself been named for mountain man Jim Bridger. The Bridger Wilderness covers much of the Bridger Formation's area.
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.
References
- ↑ Macdonald, James Reid (1961). "The lower dentition of Proterix loomisi Matthew?". Journal of Paleontology. 35 (3): 632–633.
- 1 2 Bjork, Philip R. (1975). "Observations on the morphology of the hedgehog genus Proterix (Insectivora: Erinaceidae)". In Smith, G.R.; Friedland, N.E. (eds.). Studies on Cenozoic Paleontology and Stratigraphy: Claude W. Hibbard Memorial Volume 3 (PDF). Ann Arbor: Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan. pp. 81–88.
- ↑ Dixon, Dougal (2008). World Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures. New York: Lorenz Books. p. 447. ISBN 9780754817307.
- ↑ Gawne, C.E. (1968). "The genus Proterix (Insectivora, Erinaceidae) of the Upper Oligocene of North America". American Museum Novitates (2315). hdl:2246/2525 . Retrieved 19 January 2013.
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