![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Sulestes_reconstruction.jpg/640px-Sulestes_reconstruction.jpg&w=640&q=50)
Deltatheroida
Extinct order of mammals / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Deltatheroida?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Deltatheroida is an extinct group of basal metatherians that were distantly related to modern marsupials.[2] The majority of known members of the group lived in the Cretaceous; one species, Gurbanodelta kara, is known from the late Paleocene (Gashatan) of China.[3] Their fossils are restricted to Central Asia and North America. This order can be defined as all metatherians closer to Deltatheridium than to Marsupialia.
Deltatheroida | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Sulestes reconstruction | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Clade: | Metatheria |
Order: | †Deltatheroida Gregory and Simpson, 1926 |
Families and genera | |
When they were first identified in the 1920s, they were believed to be placentals and possible ancestors of the "creodonts" (a polyphyletic group of extinct carnivorous mammals from the Paleogene and Miocene), but this was later disproven. Nonetheless, deltatheroideans do converge on hyaenodontids, oxyaenids, carnivorans, dasyuromorphs, thylacoleonids and sparassodonts in many details of their dental anatomy, suggesting a carnivorous lifestyle.[4]