Perissodactyls

Update (added 5-8-2006): a new paper just published by Nishahara et al. (2006) has reported new genetic support for a laurasiatherian clade composed of bats, perissodactyls, carnivorans and pangolins. ❋ Darren Naish (2006)

Like the perissodactyls, they are descended from the primitive five-toed plantigrade mammals of the lowest Eocene. ❋ William Harmon Norton (1900)

This further modification is clearly traceable in some of the earlier perissodactyls, and occurs in the majority at the present time. ❋ George John Romanes (1871)

Titanotheres, generally called brontotheres these days, were rhino-like Eocene perissodactyls: they've been discussed on Tet Zoo a few times. ❋ Unknown (2010)

Thanks to their hoofed phalanges and to the general idea that these animals were somehow part of the 'ancestral stock' for artiodactyls, perissodactyls and other living hoofed mammals, mesonychians have traditionally been regarded as 'stem-ungulates' or, more formally, as members of Condylarthra. ❋ Unknown (2009)

The fact that 'ungulates' as once imagined (see Prothero et al. (1988), where Ungulata includes artiodactyls, perissodactyls, cetaceans, dinoceratans, tethytheres, hyracoids and others) are clearly not monophyletic - instead they're scattered about the placental tree - means that 'archaic ungulates' are surely of diverse affinities too. ❋ Unknown (2009)

It's an epic work, but hopefully it will spur some new interest in this bizarre-looking group of extinct perissodactyls. ❋ Unknown (2008)

Instead they go elsewhere within the placental mammal clade Laurasiatheria, being (most surprisingly) closest to carnivorans, perissodactyls and artiodactyls (e.g., ❋ Darren Naish (2006)

O'Leary et al. 2004) find mesonychians to be within the same general region of the placental tree as carnivorans, perissodactyls and artiodactyls. ❋ Unknown (2009)