Carnassials are feature that allows distinguishing the
Carnivoramorpha,
Oxyaenodonta and
Hyaenodonta from the other carnivorous placental mammals.[11] However, these mammals are distinguished between them self based on the position of the carnassial teeth and the number of molars. The carnassial teeth of the Carnivoramorpha are located in P4 and m1, in Oxyaenodonta are M1 and m2, and in Hyaenodonta and close relatives are M2 and m3. This appears to be a case of a possible evolutionary convergent adaptation toward similar diet.[11]
Comparison of carnassial teeth of a carnivoran (
wolf), a hyaenodontid (Hyaenodon) and an oxyaenid (Oxyaena)
Sister groups to Ferae and position of pangolins and creodonts
According to recent studies (reflected in the diagram below), the closest living relatives of Ferae are members of mirorder
Euungulata (group of mammals which includes order
Perissodactyla and
Artiodactyla).[13][14]
An alternate phylogeny holds that the closest relatives to the Ferae are the Perissodactyla and
Chiroptera (bats), not Artiodactyla.[15] Ferae together with Perissodactyla has been called
Zooamata. Ferae, Perissodactyla, and Chiroptera together has been called
Pegasoferae. Subsequent molecular studies have generally failed to support the proposal.[16][17][18][19][20]
Pangolins were long thought to be the closest relatives of
aardvark and
xenarthrans (
armadillos,
anteaters, and
sloths), forming to the now obsolete order
Edentata. Research based on immunodiffusion technique[21] and comparison of protein and DNA sequences[22][23][24] revealed the close relationships between pangolins and carnivorans, with whom they also share a few unusual derived morphological and anatomical traits, such as the ossified
tentorium cerebelli and the fusion of the
scaphoid and
lunate bones in the wrist. The
last common ancestor of extant Ferae is supposed to have diversified c. 79.47 million years ago.[1]
While there has been strong support in the inclusion of order
Creodonta into Ferae, they were usually recovered as sister taxon to
Carnivora.[9] The Halliday et al. (2015) phylogenetic analysis of hundreds of morphological characters of Paleocene placentals found instead that creodonts might be the sister group to
Pholidotamorpha (pangolins and their stem-relatives).[25] However, recent studies have shown that Creodonta is an invalid
polyphyletic taxon. Members of this group are part of clade Pan-Carnivora and sister taxa to
Carnivoramorpha (carnivorans and their stem-relatives). They are split in two groups: order
Oxyaenodonta on one side and order
Hyaenodonta plus its stem-relatives (family
Wyolestidae and genera Altacreodus, Simidectes and Tinerhodon) on the other.[26][27][28][29][30]
^Kalandadze, N. N. and S. A. Rautian (1992.) "Systema mlekopitayushchikh i istorygeskaya zoogeographei [The system of mammals and historical zoogeography]." Sbornik Trudov Zoologicheskogo Muzeya Moskovskogo Goschdarstvennoro Universiteta 29:44–152.
^Amrine-madsen, H.; Koepfli, K.P.; Wayne, R.K.; Springer, M.S. (2003). "A new phylogenetic marker, apolipoprotein B, provides compelling evidence for eutherian relationships". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 28 (2): 225–240.
doi:
10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00118-0.
PMID12878460.
^
abMcKenna, M. C. (1975). "Toward a phylogenetic classification of the Mammalia". In Luckett, W. P.; Szalay, F. S. (eds.). Phylogeny of the Primates. New York: Plenum. pp. 21–46.
^Malcolm C. McKenna, Susan K. Bell: Classification of Mammals: Above the Species Level in Columbia University Press, New York (1997), 631 Seiten.
Ferae
^Gaudin, Timothy J.; Gaubert, Philippe; Billet, Guillaume; Hautier, Lionel; Ferreira-Cardoso, Sérgio; Wible, John R. (1 January 2020), Challender, Daniel W. S.; Nash, Helen C.; Waterman, Carly (eds.),
"Chapter 1 – Evolution and morphology", Pangolins, Biodiversity of World: Conservation from Genes to Landscapes, Academic Press, pp. 5–23,
doi:
10.1016/b978-0-12-815507-3.00001-0,
ISBN978-0-12-815507-3,
S2CID214085088, retrieved 26 February 2020
^Shoshani, Jeheskel; Goodman, Morris; Czelusniak, John; Braunitzer, Gerhard (1985). "A Phylogeny of Rodentia and Other Eutherian Orders: Parsimony Analysis Utilizing Amino Acid Sequences of Alpha and Beta Hemoglobin Chains". In Luckett, W. Patrick; Hartenberger, Jean-Louis (eds.). Evolutionary Relationships among Rodents. NATO Advanced Science Institutes (ASI) Series. Boston, MA: Springer US. pp. 191–210.
doi:
10.1007/978-1-4899-0539-0_7.
ISBN978-1-4899-0539-0.
^Solé, Floréal; Ladevèze, Sandrine (2017). "Evolution of the hypercarnivorous dentition in mammals (Metatheria,Eutheria) and its bearing on the development of tribosphenic molars". Evolution & Development. 19 (2): 56–68.
doi:
10.1111/ede.12219.
PMID28181377.
S2CID46774007.
^Smith, De Bast (2013). "Reassessment of the Small 'Arctocyonid' Prolatidens waudruae from the Early Paleocene of Belgium, and Its Phylogenetic Relationships with Ungulate-Like Mammals". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 33 (4): 964–976.
doi:
10.1080/02724634.2013.747531.
S2CID86402154.