Zooamata Explained

Zooamata ("animal friends") is a proposal for a clade of mammals uniting the Ferae (carnivores and pangolins) with the Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates).

Zoomata was proposed as one of the competing arrangements for the interordinal relationships of placental mammals within Laurasiatheria. It received support in a phylogenetic study using retroposon insertion analysis, where it was found to be the sister taxon to Chiroptera within a novel clade named Pegasoferae.^[1] The Zooamata and Cetartiodactyla (even-toed ungulates and whales) together form Scrotifera.

The name of this clade is constructed from Greek and Latin to mean "animal friends", a reference to the inclusion of cats, dogs, and horses, all of which have been domesticated by humans.

Subsequent molecular studies have generally failed to support the proposal.^{[2] [3] [4]} In particular, two recent phylogenomic studies analysing alternative theories for mammalian interordinal relationships concluded that Zooamata and Pegasoferae are not natural groupings.^{[5] [6]} The competing proposal linking the Perissodactyla and Cetartiodactyla in a clade named Euungulata, as a sister to the Ferae, in Scrotifera received stronger support.

Phylogeny

The following cladogram shows the phylogenetic relationships of laurasiatherian mammals following Nishihara et al. (2006).^[1]

Notes and References

1. Nishihara . H. . Hasegawa . M. . Okada . N. . Pegasoferae, an unexpected mammalian clade revealed by tracking ancient retroposon insertions . 10.1073/pnas.0603797103 . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 103 . 26 . 2006 . 16785431 . 1479866 . 9929–9934.
2. Matthee . Conrad A. . Eick . Geeta . Willows-Munro . Sandi . Montgelard . Claudine . Pardini . Amanda T. . Robinson . Terence J. . 10.1016/j.ympev.2006.10.002 . Indel evolution of mammalian introns and the utility of non-coding nuclear markers in eutherian phylogenetics . . 42 . 3 . 827–837 . 2007 . 17101283.
3. 10.1080/10635150701491149 . Springer . M. S. . Burk-Herrick . A. . Meredith . R. . Eizirik . E. . Teeling . E. . O'Brien . S. J. . Murphy . W. J. . 2007 . The adequacy of morphology for reconstructing the early history of placental mammals . Systematic Biology . 56 . 4 . 673–684 . 17661234 . free.
4. Kitazoe . Yasuhiro . Kishino . Hirohisa . Waddell . Peter J. . Nakajima . Noriaki . Okabayashi . Takahisa . Watabe . Teruaki . Okuhara . Yoshiyasu . Hahn . Matthew . Robust Time Estimation Reconciles Views of the Antiquity of Placental Mammals . 10.1371/journal.pone.0000384 . . 2 . 4 . e384 . 2007 . 17440620 . 1849890 . 2007PLoSO...2..384K . free.
5. Zhou . Xuming . Xu . Shixia . Xu . Junxiao . Chen . Bingyao . Zhou . Kaiya . Yang . Guang . 10.1093/sysbio/syr089 . Phylogenomic Analysis Resolves the Interordinal Relationships and Rapid Diversification of the Laurasiatherian Mammals . . 61 . 1 . 150–164 . 2011 . 21900649 . 3243735.
6. 10.1016/j.cub.2013.09.014 . Tsagkogeorga . G . Parker . J . Stupka . E . Cotton . J. A. . Rossiter . S. J. . 2013 . Phylogenomic analyses elucidate the evolutionary relationships of bats (Chiroptera) . Current Biology . 23 . 2262–2267 . 24184098 . 22 . free.