Asioryctitheria | |
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Asioryctes nemegtensis skull | |
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Order: | †Asioryctitheria Novacek et al., 1997
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Asioryctitheria ("Asian digging beasts") is an extinct order of early eutherians.
With the exception of Prokennalestes, these advanced forms lacked a Meckelian groove. Furthermore, they were equipped with double-rooted canines, a lower premolar with a reduced or absent metaconid and a more elongated lower premolar than their predecessors. In addition, the entoconid and hypoconulid on the lower molars are untwinned, the entotympanic is non-existent, the alisphenoid is enlarged, a Vidian foramen is present as well as a promontorium linked to the paroccipital process via the crista interfenestralis.
Asioryctitheria contains at least four genera and two families. [2] [3]