Mesaxonia

Mesaxonia
Donkey, Equus africanus
Macrauchenia patachonica
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Class: Mammalia
Clade: Ungulata
Clade: Mesaxonia
Marsh, 1884
Families and Orders

Mesaxonians are a clade of ungulates whose weight is distributed on the third toe on all legs through the plane symmetry of their feet. For a while it was often seen to only contain the order Perissodactyla (which includes the equines, rhinos and tapirs). Recent work in morphological cladistics and ancient DNA suggests that several extinct lineages, like the Desmostylia and some of the South American ungulates of Meridiungulata (both groups seen as Afrotherian relatives) are related to the perissodactyls.[1][2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Cooper, L. N.; Seiffert, E. R.; Clementz, M.; Madar, S. I.; Bajpai, S.; Hussain, S. T.; Thewissen, J. G. M. (2014-10-08). "Anthracobunids from the Middle Eocene of India and Pakistan Are Stem Perissodactyls". PLoS ONE. 9 (10): e109232. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0109232. PMC 4189980Freely accessible. PMID 25295875.
  2. 1 2 Qiu, L. (2014-10-08). "Ancient "Oddball" Mammal Reshuffles Family Tree?". National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 2014-10-11. Retrieved 2014-10-11.
  3. 1 2 Welker, Frido; Collins, Matthew J.; Thomas, Jessica A.; Wadsley, Marc; Brace, Selina; Cappellini, Enrico; Turvey, Samuel T.; Reguero, Marcelo; Gelfo, Javier N. (March 18, 2015). "Ancient proteins resolve the evolutionary history of Darwin/'s South American ungulates". Nature. advance online publication: 81–84. doi:10.1038/nature14249. ISSN 1476-4687. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
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