Asioryctitheria Explained

Asioryctitheria ("Asian digging beasts") is an extinct order of early eutherians.

Skull structure

With the exception of Prokennalestes, these advanced forms lacked a Meckelian groove. Furthermore, they were equipped with double-rooted canines, a lower premolar with a reduced or absent metaconid and a more elongated lower premolar than their predecessors. In addition, the entoconid and hypoconulid on the lower molars are untwinned, the entotympanic is non-existent, the alisphenoid is enlarged, a Vidian foramen is present as well as a promontorium linked to the paroccipital process via the crista interfenestralis.

Classification

Asioryctitheria contains at least four genera and two families.^{[1] [2]}

• Sasayamamylos kawaii Kusuhashi et al. 2013^[3]
• Kennalestidae Kielan-Jaworowska 1981
  • Kennalestes gobiensis Kielan-Jaworowska 1981
• Asioryctidae Szalay 1977
  • Asioryctes nemegetensis Kielan-Jaworowska 1975
  • Ukhaatherium nesovi Novacek et al. 1997

Further reading

• Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, Richard L. Cifelli, and Zhe-Xi Luo, Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs: Origins, Evolution, and Structure (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 499–501.

External links

• MESOZOIC MAMMALS; Basal Eutheria Two, an internet directory
• A eutherian mammal from the Early Cretaceous of Russia at Ingenta

Notes and References

1. Mikko's Phylogeny Archive http://www.helsinki.fi/~mhaaramo/ Web site: Haaramo. Mikko. 2007. Basal Eutheria – placental mammals and relatives . 30 December 2015.
2. Paleofile.com (net, info) Web site: Paleofile.com . 2015-12-30 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160111195520/http://paleofile.com/ . 2016-01-11 . . Web site: Taxonomic lists- Mammals . 30 December 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160111195520/http://paleofile.com/ . 11 January 2016 .
3. Kusuhashi . Nao . Tsutsumi . Yukiyasu . Saegusa . Haruo . Horie . Kenji . Ikeda . Tadahiro . Yokoyama . Kazumi . Shiraishi . Kazuyuki . A new Early Cretaceous eutherian mammal from the Sasayama Group, Hyogo, Japan . Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences . 22 May 2013 . 280 . 1759 . 20130142 . 10.1098/rspb.2013.0142. 3619506 .