Tethytheria

Tethytheria Temporal range: Paleocene-Holocene
Top: African elephant, Caribbean manatee; middle: Moeritherium, woolly mammoth; bottom: Paleoparadoxia, Arsinoitherium
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
(unranked):	Afrotheria
(unranked):	Paenungulata
(unranked):	Tethytheria McKenna 1975
Orders
†Embrithopoda †Desmostylia (?) Proboscidea Sirenia

Tethytheria is a clade of mammals that includes the sirenians and proboscideans, as well as the extinct orders Desmostylia and Embrithopoda (desmostylians, however, have been placed in Perissodactyla by a 2014 cladistic analysis).

Though there is strong anatomical and molecular support for the monophyly of Tethytheria, the interrelationships between the included taxa remain disputed. The tethytheres are united by several characters, including anteriorly facing orbits and more or less bilophodont cheek teeth (double transverse ridges on the crowns of the teeth). Proboscidea and Sirenia are linked together based on auditory characters in their petrosal bones, but this link may be a homoplasy. (The Early Eocene family Anthracobunidae has been considered to be a sister group of Tethytheria, but has more recently been assigned to Perissodactyla.)

Systematics

Cladogram after Rose 2006.

Altungulata	Perissodactyla Paenungulata Hyracoidea Tethytheria †Embrithopoda †Desmostylia (?) Proboscidea Sirenia

Classification

Classification after Rose 2006.

• Suborder Tethytheria
  • Infraorder †Embrithopoda
    • †Phenacolophidae
    • †Arsinoitheriidae
  • Infraorder Sirenia
    • †Prorastomidae
    • †Protosirenidae (Dugongidae?)
    • Dugongidae
    • Trichechidae
  • Infraorder †Desmostylia (?)
    • †Desmostylidae (?)
  • Infraorder Proboscidea
    • †Phosphatheriidae (Numidotheriidae?)
    • †Numidotheriidae
    • †Moeritheriidae
    • †Barytheriidae
    • †Deinotheriidae
    • †Palaeomastodontidae
    • †Phiomiidae
    • †Hemimastodontidae
    • †Mammutidae
    • †Gomphotheriidae
    • Elephantidae