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Concept
Metatheria
Summary
Metatheria is a mammalian clade that includes all mammals more closely related to marsupials than to placentals. First proposed by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1880, it is a more inclusive group than the marsupials; it contains all marsupials as well as many extinct non-marsupial relatives.
There are three extant subclasses of mammals, one being metatherians:
monotremes: egg laying mammals like the platypus and the echidna,
metatheria: marsupials, which includes three American orders (Didelphimorphia, Paucituberculata and Microbiotheria) and four Australasian orders (Notoryctemorphia, Dasyuromorphia, Peramelemorphia and Diprotodontia), and the
eutherians: placental mammals, consisting of four superorders divided into 21 orders.
Metatherians belong to a subgroup of the northern tribosphenic mammal clade or Boreosphenida. They differ from all other mammals in certain morphologies like their dental formula, which includes about five upper and four lower incisors, a canine, three premolars, and four molars. Other characters include skeletal and anterior dentition, such as wrist and ankle apomorphies; all metatherians share derived pedal characters and calcaneal features. The earliest known members of the group are from the latter half of the Early Cretaceous in North America. Remains of metatherians have been found on all continents.
Below is a metatherian cladogram from Wilson et al. (2016):
Below is a listing of metatherians that do not fall readily into well-defined groups.
Basal Metatheria
†Archaeonothos henkgodthelpi Beck 2015
†Esteslestes ensis Novacek et al. 1991
†Ghamidtherium dimaiensis Sánches-Villagra et al. 2007
†Kasserinotherium tunisiense Crochet 1989
†Palangania brandmayri Goin et al. 1998
†Perrodelphys coquinense Goin et al. 1999
Ameridelphia incertae sedis:
†Apistodon exiguus (Fox 1971) Davis 2007
†Cocatherium lefipanum Goin et al. 2006
†Dakotadens morrowi Eaton 1993
†Iugomortiferum thoringtoni Cifelli 1990b
†Marambiotherium glacialis Goin et al.
Official source
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