Ferae

 ( Mammal Unranked Clades ) 

Ferae ( , , "wild beasts") is a mirorder of Placentalia in grandorder Ferungulata, that groups together clades Pan-Carnivora (that includes and their fossil relatives) and Pholidotamorpha ( and their fossil relatives), and extinct order Pantolesta.

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General characteristics

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In mirorder Ferae The common feature for members of this mirorder is ossified tentorium cerebelli and the fusion of the scaphoid and lunate bone bones in the wrist.Floréal Solé & Thierry Smith (2013.) "Dispersals of placental carnivorous mammals (Carnivoramorpha, Oxyaenodonta & Hyaenodontida) near the Paleocene-Eocene boundary: a climatic and almost worldwide story" Geologica Belgica 16/4: 254–261

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In clade Pan-Carnivora The common features for members of clade Pan-Carnivora are:

• heterodont teeth that are sharp and for cutting meat,
• canine teeth that are usually large, conical, pointed, thick and stress resistant,
• and presence of the Carnassial.

Carnassials are feature that allows distinguishing the Carnivoramorpha, Oxyaenodonta and Hyaenodonta from the other carnivorous placental mammals. However, these mammals are distinguished between themselves 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.

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Classification and phylogeny

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Sister groups to Ferae According to recent studies, the closest relatives of Ferae are members of clade Pan-Euungulata (group that includes mirorder Ungulate (Advance Access; published online 7 September 2011) and extinct genus Protungulatum). Together they form grandorder Ferungulata.

An alternate phylogeny holds that the closest relative to Ferae is order Perissodactyla, with whom they form a clade Zooamata. Together, clade Zooamata and order Bat form clade Pegasoferae, and Pegasoferae is sister taxon to order within clade Scrotifera. However, subsequent molecular studies have generally failed to support this proposal.

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Position of pangolins and creodonts within clade were long thought to be the closest relatives of aardvark and , forming to the now obsolete order Edentata. Research based on immunodiffusion technique and comparison of protein and DNA sequences

(1985). 9781489905390, Springer US. ISBN 9781489905390

revealed the close relationships between pangolins and , 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 bone bones in the wrist. The last common ancestor of extant Ferae is supposed to have diversified c. 79.47 million years ago.

While there has been strong support in the inclusion of order Creodonta into Ferae, they were usually recovered as sister taxon to order Carnivora. 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). However, recent studies have shown that Creodonta is an invalid polyphyletic taxon. Members of this group are now part of clade Pan-Carnivora and sister taxa to Carnivoramorpha (carnivorans and their stem-relatives), split in two groups: order Oxyaenidae on one side and on the other side order Hyaenodonta plus its stem-relatives, genera SimidectesS. P. Zack and S. Tomiya (2016.) "New postcrania clarify the affinities of the unusual Eocene mammal Simidectes", in "The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 76th annual meeting" and Altacreodus.Prevosti, F. J., & Forasiepi, A. M. (2018). "Introduction. Evolution of South American Mammalian Predators During the Cenozoic: Paleobiogeographic and Paleoenvironmental Contingencies"

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Taxonomy

Grandorder: Ferae Order: Carnivora (carnivorans) Order: Cimolesta Suborder: Pangolin (pangolins) Suborder: †Apatemyidae Suborder: †Didelphodonta Suborder: †Ernanodontidae Suborder: †Pantodonta Suborder: †Pantolesta Suborder: †Taeniodonta Suborder: †Tillodontia Family: †Palaeoryctidae "Subfamily:" †Wyolestes Genus: † Alostera Genus: † Avitotherium Genus: † Pararyctes Genus: † Ravenictis Order: † Creodonta (false carnivorans) Family: †Hyaenodonta Family: †Oxyaenidae "Subfamily:" †Koholia Genus: † Prionogale

Mirorder: Ferae Clade: Pan-Carnivora J. J. Flynn, A. R. Wyss and M. Wolsan (2020.) " Pan-Carnivora, new clade name" In book: Phylonyms (pp.979–982) (carnivorans and stem-relatives) Clade: Carnivoramorpha (carnivoran-like mammals) = Order: † Oxyaenidae Family: †Oxyaenidae (unranked): † Hyaenodonta '' Order: †Hyaenodonta '' Genus: † Altacreodus Genus: † Simidectes Clade: Pholidotamorpha (pangolin-like mammals) Order: Pangolin (pangolins) Order: †Palaeanodonta (stem-pangolins) Order: †Pantolesta

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Alternative classification and possible fossil members

In Halliday et al. (2015) various enigmatic Palaeocene mammals have been proposed to be possible members of Ferae, like members of orders Mesonychia, Pantodonta and Taeniodonta, and families Arctocyonidae, Didelphodontidae, Nyctitheriidae, Palaeoryctidae, Periptychidae and Triisodontidae. Mesonychians are proposed to be a sister group to carnivoramorphs, while arctocyonids were polyphyletic, with genera Arctocyon and Loxolophus as a sister taxa to pantodonts and periptychids, Goniacodon and Eoconodon sister to the Carnivoramorpha-Mesonychia clade, and other genera allied with creodonts and palaeoryctids. This enlarged Ferae was also found to be the sister group to order Bat, even though recent studies dispute this classification.Frank Zachos (2020.) "Mammalian Phylogenetics: A Short Overview of Recent Advances", In book: "Mammals of Europe – Past, Present, and Future" (pp.31–48)Xue Lv, Jingyang Hu, Yiwen Hu, Yitian Li, Dongming Xu, Oliver A. Ryder, David M. Irwin, Li Yu (2021.) "Diverse phylogenomic datasets uncover a concordant scenario of laurasiatherian interordinal relationships", Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Volume 157

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See also

• Mammal classification
• Ferungulata

Categories: Mammal Unranked Clades

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