Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous – Recent
|Clockwise from the upper left: giraffe, fruit bat, lion, hedgehog|
Waddell et al., 1999
Laurasiatheria is a large group of placental mammals. The name comes from the area where advanced mammals evolved. This was on the northern supercontinent of Laurasia, roughly corresponding to Eurasia today plus North America. When Pangaea broke up, it split first into Laurasia in the north and Gondwana in the south.
- Eulipotyphla: hedgehogs, gymnures, moles, shrews, solenodons (cosmopolitan)
- Cetartiodactyla: cosmopolitan; includes former orders Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises) and Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates, including pigs, hippopotamus, camels, giraffe, deer, antelope, cattle, sheep, goats)
- Pholidota: pangolins or scaly anteaters (Africa, South Asia)
- Chiroptera: bats (cosmopolitan)
- Carnivora: carnivores (cosmopolitan)
- Perissodactyla: odd-toed ungulates
References[change | change source]
- Zhou, Xuming et al 2011. Phylogenomic analysis resolves the interordinal relationships and rapid diversification of the laurasiatherian mammals. Systematic Biology 61 (1): 150–164. 
- Nery M.F. et al 2012. Resolution of the laurasiatherian phylogeny: evidence from genomic data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 64 (3): 685–689.