PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - O'Leary, Maureen A.
AU  - Bloch, Jonathan I.
AU  - Flynn, John J.
AU  - Gaudin, Timothy J.
AU  - Giallombardo, Andres
AU  - Giannini, Norberto P.
AU  - Goldberg, Suzann L.
AU  - Kraatz, Brian P.
AU  - Luo, Zhe-Xi
AU  - Meng, Jin
AU  - Ni, Xijun
AU  - Novacek, Michael J.
AU  - Perini, Fernando A.
AU  - Randall, Zachary S.
AU  - Rougier, Guillermo W.
AU  - Sargis, Eric J.
AU  - Silcox, Mary T.
AU  - Simmons, Nancy B.
AU  - Spaulding, Michelle
AU  - Velazco, Paúl M.
AU  - Weksler, Marcelo
AU  - Wible, John R.
AU  - Cirranello, Andrea L.
TI  - The Placental Mammal Ancestor and the Post–K-Pg Radiation of Placentals
AID  - 10.1126/science.1229237
DP  - 2013 Feb 08
TA  - Science
PG  - 662--667
VI  - 339
IP  - 6120
4099  - http://science.sciencemag.org/content/339/6120/662.short
4100  - http://science.sciencemag.org/content/339/6120/662.full
SO  - Science2013 Feb 08; 339
AB  - To discover interordinal relationships of living and fossil placental mammals and the time of origin of placentals relative to the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, we scored 4541 phenomic characters de novo for 86 fossil and living species. Combining these data with molecular sequences, we obtained a phylogenetic tree that, when calibrated with fossils, shows that crown clade Placentalia and placental orders originated after the K-Pg boundary. Many nodes discovered using molecular data are upheld, but phenomic signals overturn molecular signals to show Sundatheria (Dermoptera + Scandentia) as the sister taxon of Primates, a close link between Proboscidea (elephants) and Sirenia (sea cows), and the monophyly of echolocating Chiroptera (bats). Our tree suggests that Placentalia first split into Xenarthra and Epitheria; extinct New World species are the oldest members of Afrotheria.