Pantotheria
Encyclopedia
Pantotheria is an abandoned taxon of Mesozoic
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time...

 mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

s. This group is now considered an informal "wastebasket" taxon and has been replaced by Dryolestida
Dryolestida
Dryolestida is an extinct order of mammals known from the Jurassic to Tertiary. It has been suggested that these mammals are either the possible ancestors of therian mammals or an offshoot from the same evolutionary line. It is also believed that they developed a fully mammalian jaw and also had...

 as well as other groups. It is sometimes treated as an infraclass and older books refer to it as being related to symmetrodonts
Symmetrodonta
Symmetrodonta is a basal group of Mesozoic mammals characterized by the triangular aspect of the molars when viewed from above and the absence of a well-developed talonid. The traditional group of symmetrodonts ranges in age from the latest Triassic to the Late Cretaceous. One species,...

.

External links

  • http://taxonomicon.taxonomy.nl/TaxonTree.aspx?id=59655&tree=0.1&syn=1
  • http://www.answers.com/pantotheria
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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