Archaic Mammals: Overview

Pantolambda, (Pantodonta). This sheep-sized Middle Paleocene mammal was one of the first large herbivores to evolve, following the extinction of the dinosaurs. It's descendants, such as the cow-sized early Eocene Corphyodon, were the first mammalian megaherbivores and the largest animals of their time. The exact evolutionary relationships of the Pantodonts are unclear. Artwork by Heinrich Harder (public domain)

The present unit differs from others on Palaeos in being non-phylogenetic, indeed at times even non-taxonomic. Basically it is a wastebasket category for all those early evolutionary eutherian lineages that cannot be easily categorised elsewhere. Rather than bloat out the eutheria unit with pages of incertae sedis (taxa of uncertain position), or toss them in forced or arbitray categories, such as, e.g. placing the Dinocerataa among the anagalida or the meridungulata (although either hypothesis may be totally plausible), we have put them here, pending even an iota of certainty appearing in the paleontological community on this subject. MAK120715.