Scrotifera
Sign in to saveScrotifera ("scrotum bearers") is a clade of placental mammals that groups together grandorder Ferungulata, Chiroptera (bats), other extinct members and their common ancestors. The clade Scrotifera is a sister group to the order Eulipotyphla (true insectivores) based on evidence from molecular phylogenetics, and together they make superorder Laurasiatheria. The last common ancestor of Scrotifera is supposed to have diversified ca. 73.1 to 85.5 million years ago.
Article
7 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Description
- Classification and phylogeny
- History of phylogeny
- Taxonomy
- See also
- References
Scrotifera ("scrotum bearers") is a clade of placental mammals that groups together grandorder Ferungulata, Chiroptera (bats), other extinct members and their common ancestors. The clade Scrotifera is a sister group to the order Eulipotyphla (true insectivores) based on evidence from molecular phylogenetics, and together they make superorder Laurasiatheria. The last common ancestor of Scrotifera is supposed to have diversified ca. 73.1 to 85.5 million years ago.
== Etymology == The name Scrotifera, coined by Peter Waddell of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, comes "from the word scrotum, a pouch in which the testes permanently reside in the adult male". It was chosen due to the presence of a postpenile scrotum in all members of Scrotifera, with the exception of some aquatic forms and pangolins.