Zooamata
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| Zooamata | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Clade: | Scrotifera |
| Clade: | Pegasoferae |
| Clade: | Zooamata Waddell, 1999[1] |
| Subgroups | |
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Zooamata ("animal friends") is a proposal for a clade of mammals uniting the Ferae (carnivores and pangolins) with the Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates).
Zoomata was proposed as one of the competing arrangements for the interordinal relationships of placental mammals within Laurasiatheria.[1] It received support in a phylogenetic study using retroposon insertion analysis, where it was found to be the sister taxon to Chiroptera within a novel clade named Pegasoferae.[2] The Zooamata and Cetartiodactyla (even-toed ungulates and whales) together form Scrotifera.
The name of this clade is constructed from Greek and Latin to mean "animal friends", a reference to the inclusion of cats, dogs, and horses, all of which have been domesticated by humans.
Subsequent molecular studies have generally failed to support the proposal.[3][4][5] In particular, two recent phylogenomic studies analysing alternative theories for mammalian interordinal relationships concluded that Zooamata and Pegasoferae are not natural groupings.[6][7] The competing proposal linking the Perissodactyla and Cetartiodactyla in a clade named Euungulata, as a sister to the Ferae, in Scrotifera received stronger support.
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