Euarchontoglires is a clade and a superorder of mammals, the living members of which belong to one of the five following groups: rodents, lagomorphs, treeshrews, colugos and primates.
The Euarchontoglires clade is based on DNA sequence analyses and retrotransposonmarkers that combine the cladesGlires and Euarchonta. So far, few if any distinctive anatomical features have been recognized that support Euarchontoglires, nor does any strong evidence from anatomy support alternative hypotheses. Although both Euarchontoglires and diprotodont marsupials are documented to possess a vermiform appendix, this feature evolved as a result of convergent evolution. Euarchontoglires is now recognized as one of the four major subclades within the clade Eutheria, and it is usually discussed without a taxonomic rank but has been called a cohort, magnorder, or superorder. Relations among the four cohorts and the identity of the placental root remain controversial. Euarchontoglires probably split from the Laurasiatheriasister group about 85 to 95million years ago, during the Cretaceous, and developed in the Laurasian island group that would later become Europe. This hypothesis is supported by molecular evidence; so far, the earliest known fossils date to the early Paleocene. The combined clade of Euarchontoglires and Laurasiatheria is recognized as Boreoeutheria.
Organization
The hypothesized relationship among the Euarchontoglires is as follows: One study based on DNA analysis suggests that Scandentia and Primates are sister clades, but does not discuss the position of Dermoptera. Although it is known that Scandentia is one of the most basal Euarchontoglires clades, the exact phylogenetic position is not yet considered resolved, and it may be a sister of Glires, Primatomorpha or Dermoptera or to all other Euarchontoglires. Some recent studies place Scandentia as sister of the Glires, invalidating Euarchonta. Whole-genome duplication took place in the ancestral Euarchontoglires.
