Palaeanodonta
Sign in to saveAlso known as Ernodonta, Ernanodonta, Palaeanodontiformes, Palaenodonta, Palaenodontina
Palaeanodonta ("ancient toothless animals") is an extinct order of placental mammals in the clade Pholidotamorpha. They were insectivorous (myrmecophagous), fossorial or semifossorial, 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.
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- Anatomy
- Skull
- Teeth
- Classification and phylogeny
- Phylogeny
- See also
- References
Palaeanodonta ("ancient toothless animals") is an extinct order of placental mammals in the clade Pholidotamorpha. They were insectivorous (myrmecophagous), fossorial or semifossorial, 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.
== Anatomy == === Skull === Palaeanodonts generally have low and caudally-broad skulls, with notable lambdoid crests and inflated bullae and squamosals.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Palaeanodonta” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.