What is Laurasiatheria?
Q: What is Laurasiatheria?
A: Laurasiatheria is a large group of placental mammals that evolved on the northern supercontinent of Laurasia, roughly corresponding to Eurasia today plus North America.
Q: What animals are included in the group?
A: Members of the group include shrews, hedgehogs, pangolins, bats, whales, most hoofed mammals, and carnivorans.
Q: How is the Laurasiatheria defined?
A: The Laurasiatheria is defined by DNA sequence analysis. It does not share any obvious anatomical features.
Q: What orders are included in the living members of this group?
A: The living orders included in this group are Eulipotyphla (hedgehogs, gymnures, moles, shrews and solenodons), Cetartiodactyla (Cetacea - whales dolphins and porpoises; Artiodactyla - even-toed ungulates such as pigs hippopotamus camels giraffe deer antelope cattle sheep and goats), Pholidota (pangolins or scaly anteaters), Chiroptera (bats) Carnivora (carnivores) and Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates).
Q: Is there an agreed tree of descent for these groups?
A: Not yet - there are various ideas as to how these groups are related to each other but no tree of descent has been agreed upon by experts so far.
