Asioryctitheria

Asioryctitheria Temporal range: Early-Late Cretaceous
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Asioryctes nemegtensis skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Subclass:	Theria
Infraclass:	Eutheria
Order:	†Asioryctitheria Novacek et al., 1997
Genera
Asioryctes Kennalestes Sasayamamylos Ukhaatherium

Asioryctitheria ("asian digging beasts") is an extinct order of early eutherians.

Skull structure

With the exception of Prokennalestes, these advanced forms lacked a Meckelian groove. Furthermore, they were equipped with double-rooted canines, a lower premolar with a reduced or absent metaconid and a more elongated lower premolar than their predecessors. In addition, the entoconid and hypoconulid on the lower molars are untwinned, the entotympanic is non-existent, the alisphenoid is enlarged, a Vidian foramen is present as well as a promontorium linked to the paroccipital process via the crista interfenestralis.

Classification

Asioryctitheria contains at least four genera and two families.

• Sasayamamylos kawaii Kusuhashi et al. 2013
• Kennalestidae Kielan-Jaworowska 1981
  • Kennalestes gobiensis Kielan-Jaworowska 1981
• Asioryctidae Szalay 1977
  • Asioryctes nemegetensis Kielan-Jaworowska 1975
  • Ukhaatherium nesovi Novacek et al. 1997

Further reading

• Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, Richard L. Cifelli, and Zhe-Xi Luo, Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs: Origins, Evolution, and Structure (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 499-501.

External links

• MESOZOIC MAMMALS; Basal Eutheria Two, an internet directory
• A eutherian mammal from the Early Cretaceous of Russia at Ingenta