Aardvarks (RE: recently extinct groups)

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

A.P. Hazen wrote:

>    Another taxon from the  Holocene  about which serious phylogenetic 
> doubts have arisen is Paleoycteropus: originally described as a 
> Tubulidentate (as the  name suggests), but subsequently argued  to be 
> "ordinally" distinct from all other known mammals (and given its own 
> "order", Bibimalagaysia).

In case anyone is interested further in reading up on this, I'll correct the 
very few (and very minor) spelling mistakes.  _Plesiorycteropus_ is the 
creature from Madagascar that was alive as recently as a thousand years ago. 
 As Allen says, though once regarded as an aardvark, it was placed by 
MacPhee (1994) in its own order, the Bibymalagasia.

_Palaeorycteropus_ is from the Oligocene of Europe; I'm not certain this guy 
is a 'true' aardvark (tubulidentate) either.

Reference:

MacPhee, R.D.E. (19940. Morphology, adaptations, and relationships of 
_Plesiorycteropus_, and a diagnosis of a new order of eutherian mammals.  
Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 220: 1-214.