1996/05/24 by J. David Archibald · 120 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology #Bat Biology and Ecology Studies #Cretaceous #Monophyly #Extant taxon #Clade #Evolution of mammals #Biology #Theria #Paleontology #Zoology #Evolutionary biology #Phylogenetics #Cenozoic #Phanerozoic
paper · doi:10.1126/science.272.5265.1150
published in Science 272(5265), 1150-1153 (American Association for the Advancement of Science)
openalex publication_date 1996/05/24 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Seventeen of eighteen orders of living placental mammals are not known before 65 million years ago. The monophyly of each order is well established, but interrelations have been less certain. A superordinal grouping of up to seven extant orders plus a variety of extinct orders, all included within Ungulata ("hoofed" mammals), can be linked to Late Cretaceous mammals from the 85-million-year-old Bissekty Formation, Uzbekistan (and, less certainly, North America and Europe), thus pushing the origin of this major clade back by 20 million years. Ungulatomorphs are not closely related to primates, rodents, or rabbits.