Palaeos		Cetartiodactyla
Vertebrates		Cetartiodactyla

Cetartiodactyla

LAURASIATHERIA 
|--FERAE
`--+--PERISSODACTYLA 
   |
   CETARTIODACTYLA
   |--Cetacea
   |  |--Pakicetidae
   |  `--+--Ambulocetidae
   |     `--+--Remingtonocetidae
   |        `--Autoceta  
   `--Artiodactyla
      |--Suina  
      |  |--Hippopotamidae
      |  `--Suoidea   
      `--Selenodontia  
         |--Camelidae
         `--Ruminantia  
            |--Giraffoidea  
            `--+--Bovoidea  
               `--Cervoidea

Taxa on This Page

1. Cetartiodactyla

Descriptions

Cetartiodactyla: deer + dolphins

Range: from the Late Cretaceous [BG98] (computed).

Phylogeny: Eparctocyona ::: Mesonychia + * : Cetacea + Artiodactyla

Characters: incus crus longum (lenticular process) shorter than crus breve [TH93]; $? incisors arranged in anteroposterior row, not arc [T+01]; $? P1 two-rooted [T+01]; $? p4 talonid without cusp [T+01]; M1 parastyle present [T+01]; $? postorbital process of frontal present [T+01]; $ supraorbital foramen present [T+01]; $ alisphenoid canal (? may be reference to gap between ali- & orbitosphenoids) present [T+01]; $ glenoid fossa medially continuous with tympanic (?) [T+01]; $? furrow present on caudal half of tympanic for tympanohyal [T+01]; $? hypoglossal foramen closer to jugular foramen than to occipital condyle [T+01]; entepicondyle of humerus narrow [T+01]; $ entepicondylar foramen absent [T+01]; $ centrale absent [T+01]; $ deeply grooved proximal trochlea of astragalus [T+01]; $ navicular (distal ) trochlea of astragalus present, with dorsoplantar rotation [T+01]; $ astragalus with wide, rectangular sustentacular facet [T+01]; $ flat, lateral ectal facet [T+01]; $ ecto- and meso-cuneiforms fused [T+01].

Links: Molecular evolution of growth hormone in Cetartiodactyla Z. ... (interesting little abstract); site du laboratoire UMR CNRS 5558 (intuitively appealing idea, but who knows?); Phylogeny of Ungulates (plain language summary of the "whippo" hypothesis); Phylogenetic relationships of artiodactyls and cetaceans as ... (molecular phylogeny); The interphotoreceptor retinoid binding protein gene in therian ... (another molecular phylogeny); The Ultimate Ungulate Page (a good source for all things ungulate); Estimating the Influence of Selection on the Variable Amino Acid ... (hopefully we'll see much more of this kind of paper); Towards Resolving the Interordinal Relationships of Placental ... (short review article on molecular work).  ATW031213.

References: Bajpai & Gingerich (1998) [BG98]; Thewissen & Hussain (1993) [TH93]; Thewissen et al. (2001) [T+01]. 011013.