Altungulata


Altungulata or Pantomesaxonia is an invalid clade of ungulate mammals comprising the perissodactyls, hyracoids, and tethytheres.
The name "Pantomesaxonia" was originally introduced by, a German zoologist and racial theorist. It was resurrected by by including sirenians and excluding South American ungulates, phenacodontids, and meniscotheriids from the original concept.
The name "Altungulata", introduced by and revised by, was erected as an alternative because the updated concept of "Pantomesaxonia" was regarded too deviant from the original concept.
Both names are still in use, and, to add to the confusion, various authors assign different ranks to the involved taxa. For example, according to, Phenacodonta and Pantomesaxonia are sister groups together making up the superorder Paenungulata.
Altungulata is not supported by molecular evidence unless perissodactyls are excluded, and the validity of the following uniting synapomorphies remain disputed:
Recent studies on Abdounodus showcase that dental synapomorphies between both groups arose independently, further discrediting the Altungulata hypothesis.

Classification

The classification below is from. Paenungulata together with Macroscelidea, Tubulidentata, and the lipotyphlan families Tenrecidae and Chrysochloridae compose Afrotheria. With the exclusion of the better known Radinskya and Minchenella from Phenacolophidae, their affinities to Embrithropoda are suspect, and they were regarded as Altungulata incertae sedis by Mao et al..
Altungulata Prothero and Schoch 1989