Archonta
Template:Short description Template:Automatic taxobox
The Archonta are a now-abandoned group of mammals, considered a superorder in some classifications, which consists of these orders:
- Primates
- Plesiadapiformes (extinct primate-like archontans)
- Scandentia (treeshrews)
- Dermoptera (colugos)
While bats were traditionally included in the Archonta, genetic analysis has suggested that bats actually belong in Laurasiatheria.[1] A revised category excluding bats, Euarchonta, has been proposed.[2][3]
This taxon may have arisen in the Early Cretaceous (more than 100 million years ago), so other models may explain mammalian evolution besides an explosive radiation from a single surviving lineage following the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction of the Mesozoic megafauna,[4] such as a series of prior radiations related to the breakup of Gondwana and Laurasia allowing for more survivors.[5][6]