Afrotheria

Afrotheria Temporal range: Palaeocene – Recent
1.Orycteropus 2.Dugong 3.Rhynchocyon 4.Trichechus sp. 5.Chrysochloridae sp. 6.Procavia 7.Loxodonta africana 8.Tenrec
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Class:	Mammalia
(unranked):	Eutheria
Infraclass:	Placentalia
Superorder:	Afrotheria

The Afrotheria is a group of mammals, (a superorder or a clade). It includes the golden moles, elephant shrews, tenrecs, aardvarks, hyraxes, elephants and manatees.

Biologists made this group based on DNA sequence analysis.^[1] Afrotheria are one of four major groups in the Eutheria (placental mammals). Afrotheria means "African animals", "afro" for Africa and "theria" for animals.

More recent genomics suggests that Afrotheria and Xenarthra are sister taxa at the base of the placental mammal radiation.^[2]

Relations between the various afrotherian orders are still being studied. Elephants and manatees seem to be related, and likewise elephant shrews and aardvarks.^[3] These findings are compatible with the work of earlier anatomists.^[4][5]

1. ↑ Stanhope M.J. et al 1998. Molecular evidence for multiple origins of Insectivora and for a new order of endemic African insectivore mammals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 95 (17): 9967–9972. [1]
2. ↑ Prasad A.B; Allard M.W; NISC Comparative Sequencing Program and Green E.D. 2008. Confirming the phylogeny of mammals by use of large comparative sequence data sets. Mol Biol Evol 25: 1795–1808
3. ↑ Svartman M. & Stanyon R. 2012. The chromosomes of Afrotheria and their bearing on mammalian genome evolution. Cytogenet Genome Res. [2]
4. ↑ Simpson G.G. 1945. The principles of classification and a classification of mammals. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 85: 1-350.
5. ↑ Tabuce R; Asher R.J. & Lehmann T. 2008. Afrotherian mammals: a review of current data. Mammalia 72: 2-14.