Palaeos		Glires
Vertebrates		Crown Group Glires

Glires: Crown Group Glires

EUARCHONTOGLIRES
|--ARCHONTA
|
`--ANAGALIDA (Total Group Glires)
   |--Anagaloidea
   |  |--Anagalidae
   |  `--Pseudictopidae
   `--Crown Group Glires
      |--Lagomorpha
      `--RODENTIA

Taxa on This Page

1. Glires

Descriptions

Glires : Eurymylus? rabbits & rodents. 

Range: fr lwPc. 

Phylogeny: Anagalida : Anagaloidea + *: Lagomorpha + Rodentia. 

Characters: Elongated snout with substantial (50%) contribution from growth of premaxilla [A+01]; jaw moves anterodorsally away from ear [L+87]; lateral alisphenoid canal for anterior trigeminal [L+87]; ever growing incisors and cheek teeth; reduced dentition; large, medial, & ever-growing procumbent i1 [A+01] (contra [FK02], not procumbent in Glires because strongly curved upwards); incisors with enamel restricted to outer surface near the crowns [A+01]; incisor enamel with Hunter-Schreger bands [A+01]; canines absent; large diastema between incisors & premolars; reduced number of premolars; coprophagy [L+87]; specialized cecum [L+87]. 

Note: Clearly the taxon Glires, first proposed by Linnaeus, remains controversial after literally centuries of debate. Even the scanty morphological description above would exclude the Macroscelidea. Incidentally, "glires" is the plural of the Latin glis = dormouse which, stuffed and/or in honey, was the Roman equivalent of a gourmet hot dog.

Links: Main Page; Glires I; Glires II; Origin of Rodents (interesting and useful undergraduate paper); Averianov (abstract); novembr6.html; THE THERIAN CLADE; JBC -- Graham et al. 271 (26): 15623; Phylogenetic analysis; mtDNA sequence of the fat dormouse; Fossil rodent from Inner Mongolia ; PNAS -- Reprint (PDF) Version: Li et al. 87 (17):6703; Rodent Phylogeny and a Timescale for the Evolution of Glires- ... (molecular phylogeny which agrees with morphological tree); MESOZOIC MAMMALS; Zalambdalestidae, Lipotyphla- and Cimolestidae ... (Zalambdalestidae may be near the root of Glires); Glires (rabbits, pikas, rodents) (brief definition); n414_1c 62..65 (a morphological tree also associating Zalambdalestidae with Glires); Brief report (questioning the previous article); ScienceDirect - Gene : Pika and vole mitochondrial genomes increase support for both rodent monophyly (molecular phylogeny depends on choice of outgroup). 

References: Archibald et al. (2001) [A+01]; Fostowicz-Frelik & Kielan-Jaworowska (2002) [FK02]; Li et al. (1987) [L+87].  ATW031219.