Information: - The Arikareean North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), typically set from 30,600,000 to 20,800,000 years BP, a period of . It is usually considered to overlap the Oligocene and Miocene epochs. The Arikareean is preceded by the Whitneyan and followed by the Hemingfordian NALMA stages. - The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words (', less) and (', new) and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene Epoch and is followed by the Pliocene Epoch. - In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system, such as an animal, plant, fungus, archaeon, or bacterium. All known types of organisms are capable of some degree of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development and homeostasis. An organism consists of one or more cells; when it has one cell it is known as a unicellular organism; and when it has more than one it is known as a multicellular organism. Most unicellular organisms are of microscopic scale and are thus loosely described as microorganisms. Humans are multicellular organisms composed of many trillions of cells grouped into specialized tissues and organs. - Palaeoloxodon is an extinct genus that contains the various species of straight-tusked elephant. Its species' remains have been found in Bilzingsleben, Germany; Cyprus; Japan; India; Sicily; Malta; and in England during the excavation of the second Channel Tunnel. The English discovery, in 2006 in northwest Kent, dated c. 400,000 ybp, was of a single adult; associated with it were Palaeolithic stone butchering tools of the type used by "Homo heidelbergensis". One species, "Palaeoloxodon namadicus", was the largest known land mammal. - Desmostylia (from Greek "desma", "bundle", and "stylos", "pillar") is an extinct order of aquatic mammals that existed from the late Oligocene (Arikareean) to the late Miocene (Tortonian). - Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the Cretaceous period, about 99 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than 12,500 of an estimated total of 22,000 species have been classified. They are easily identified by their elbowed antennae and the distinctive node-like structure that forms their slender waists. - Arsinoitherium is an extinct genus of paenungulate mammal belonging to the extinct order Embrithopoda. It is related to elephants, sirenians, hyraxes and the extinct desmostylians. Arsinoitheres were superficially rhinoceros-like herbivores that lived during the late Eocene and the early Oligocene of northern Africa from 36 to 30 million years ago, in areas of tropical rainforest and at the margin of mangrove swamps. A species described in 2004, "A. giganteum", lived in Ethiopia about 27 million years ago. - Palaeoloxodon namadicus or the Asian straight-tusked elephant, was a species of prehistoric elephant that ranged throughout Pleistocene Asia, from India (where it was first discovered) to Japan. It is a descendant of the straight-tusked elephant. Some authorities regard it to be a subspecies of "Palaeoloxodon antiquus", the straight-tusked elephant, due to extreme similarities of the tusks. Their skull structure was also different from that of a modern elephant. - Mammals are any vertebrates within the class Mammalia (from Latin "mamma" "breast"), a clade of endothermic amniotes distinguished from reptiles and birds by the possession of a neocortex (a region of the brain), hair, three middle ear bones and mammary glands. The sister group of mammals may be the extinct "Haldanodon." The mammals represent the only living Synapsida, which together with the Sauropsida form the Amniota clade. The mammals consist of the Yinotheria including monotrema and the Theriiformes including the theria. - The Proboscidea (from the Greek and the Latin "proboscis") are a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family, Elephantidae, and several extinct families. This order, first described by J. Illiger in 1811, encompasses the trunked mammals. Later proboscideans are distinguished by tusks and long, muscular trunks; these features are less developed or absent in early proboscideans. Proboscidea may have produced the largest land mammal of all time in the form of "Palaeoloxodon namadicus", which may have weighed up to , with a shoulder height of up to , surpassing several sauropod dinosaurs. - The Dugongidae are a family in the order of Sirenia. The family has one surviving species, the dugong ("Dugong dugon"), one recently extinct species, Steller's sea cow ("Hydrodamalis gigas"), and a number of extinct genera known from fossil records. - 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 . ) - A proboscis is an elongated appendage from the head of an animal, either a vertebrate or an invertebrate. In invertebrates, the term usually refers to tubular mouthparts used for feeding and sucking. In vertebrates, the term is used to describe an elongated nose or snout. - Elephantidae is a family of large, herbivorous mammals collectively called elephants and mammoths. These are terrestrial large mammals with a snout modified into a trunk and teeth modified into tusks. Most genera and species in the family are extinct. Only two genera, "Loxodonta" (African elephants) and "Elephas" (Asiatic elephants), are living. - Elephants are large mammals of the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea. Two species are traditionally recognised, the African elephant ("Loxodonta africana") and the Asian elephant ("Elephas maximus"), although some evidence suggests that African bush elephants and African forest elephants are separate species ("L.africana" and "L.cyclotis" respectively). Elephants are scattered throughout sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Elephantidae is the only surviving family of the order Proboscidea; other, now extinct, members of the order include deinotheres, gomphotheres, mammoths, and mastodons. Male African elephants are the largest extant terrestrial animals and can reach a height of and weigh . All elephants have several distinctive features, the most notable of which is a long trunk or proboscis, used for many purposes, particularly breathing, lifting water, and grasping objects. Their incisors grow into tusks, which can serve as weapons and as tools for moving objects and digging. Elephants' large ear flaps help to control their body temperature. Their pillar-like legs can carry their great weight. African elephants have larger ears and concave backs while Asian elephants have smaller ears and convex or level backs. - Prorastomidae is a taxonomic family of extinct animals from Jamaica, related to the extant manatees and dugong. The family includes two genera: - Paenungulata is a clade that groups three extant mammal orders: Proboscidea (including elephants), Sirenia (sea cows, including dugongs and manatees), and Hyracoidea (hyraxes). At least two more orders are known only as fossils, namely Embrithopoda and Desmostylia (desmostylians, however, have been placed in Perissodactyla by a 2014 cladistic analysis). Each of these extinct orders was as unique in its members' ways as the surviving orders. Embrithopods were rhinoceros-like herbivorous mammals with plantigrade feet, and desmostylians were hippopotamus-like amphibious animals. Their walking posture and diet have been the subject of speculation, but tooth wear indicates that desmostylians browsed on terrestrial plants and had a posture similar to other large hoofed mammals. - Sirenia, commonly referred to as sea cows, is an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit swamps, rivers, estuaries, marine wetlands, and coastal marine waters. Sirenia comprises the families Dugongidae (the dugong), Trichechidae (manatees), Protosirenidae (Eocene sirenians), and Prorastomidae (terrestrial sirenians). There are currently four extant species of sirenians. Sirenians are classified in the clade Paenungulata, alongside the elephants and the hyraxes, and evolved in the Eocene 50 million years ago. The Dugongidae diverged from the Trichechidae in the late Eocene or early Oligocene. - Aquatic and semiaquatic mammals are a diverse group of mammals that dwell partly or entirely in bodies of water. They include the various marine mammals who dwell in oceans, as well as various freshwater species, such as the European otter. They are not a taxon and are not unified by any distinct biological grouping, but rather their dependence on and integral relation to aquatic ecosystems. The level of dependence on aquatic life are vastly different among species, with the Amazonian manatee and river dolphins being completely aquatic and fully dependent on aquatic ecosystems; whereas the Baikal seal feeds underwater but rests, molts, and breeds on land; and the capybara and hippopotamus are able to venture in and out of water in search of food. - Embrithopoda ("heavy-footed") is an order of extinct mammals known from Asia, Africa and eastern Europe. Most of the embrithopod genera are known exclusively from jaws and teeth dated from the late Paleocene to the late Eocene, but the order is best known from its terminal member, the elephantine "Arsinoitherium". - Afrotheria is a clade of mammals, the living members of which belong to groups that are either currently living in Africa or of African origin: golden moles, elephant shrews (also known as sengis), tenrecs, aardvarks, hyraxes, elephants, sea cows, and several extinct clades. They share few anatomical features but many are partly or entirely African in their distribution. This probably reflects the fact that Africa was an island continent through the early Cenozoic. Because the continent was isolated by water, Laurasian groups such as insectivores, rabbits, carnivorans and ungulates could not become established. Instead, the niches occupied by those groups were filled by tenrecs, hyraxes and elephants that evolved from the ancestral afrothere. This adaptive radiation may have occurred in response to the CretaceousPaleogene mass extinction. - A clade (from , "klados", "branch") is a group of organisms that consists of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants, and represents a single "branch" on the "tree of life". What entity does 'tethytheria' has the relation 'parent taxon' with?
afrotheria