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Euarchontoglires

Adapted from Wikipedia · Discoverer experience

Illustration showing different mammals that belong to the Euarchontoglires group, including rodents, lagomorphs, treeshrews, colugos, and primates.

Euarchontoglires is a group of placental mammals that includes several familiar animals. The name comes from two words: "Euarchonta," meaning "true rulers," and "Glires," meaning "dormice." This group is also called Supraprimates.

Living members of Euarchontoglires belong to one of five main groups: rodents, lagomorphs, treeshrews, primates, and colugos. Rodents include animals like mice and rats, while lagomorphs include rabbits. Treeshrews are small animals that look like mice but are not true rodents. Primates include monkeys, apes, and humans. Colugos, also known as flying lemurs, are unique animals that can glide through the air.

This group is important for understanding how different mammals are related. By studying Euarchontoglires, scientists can learn more about the evolution and characteristics shared by these diverse animals.

Classification

The Euarchontoglires group is made up of special types of mammals. Scientists figure this out by looking at DNA and other tiny clues inside the cells. This group includes rodents, rabbits, treeshrews, primates, and colugos.

Scientists aren't always sure how to sort these animals into groups, but they know this group split off from other mammals about 85 to 95 million years ago, during a time called the Cretaceous period. The earliest fossils of these animals come from a time called the Paleocene.

Images

Illustration of a mountain hare for educational use.
An illustrated drawing of a tree shrew, a small mammal, from a historical zoological book.
Illustration of a flying fox (Cynocephalus volans), a type of fruit bat known for its unique appearance and ability to glide through the air.
An artist's reconstruction of Anagale gobiensis, an ancient mammal relative of rodents and rabbits, from the Early Oligocene period.
Illustration of a tree shrew, a small mammal found in Southeast Asia, from a 19th-century scientific publication.
Illustration of Purgatorius unio, one of the earliest known primates from ancient North America.
Illustration of Plesiadapis, an ancient mammal from the time of the dinosaurs.
A curious okapi, a relative of giraffes and okapis, seen at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Illustration of a brown rat, known scientifically as Rattus norvegicus.

Related articles

Glires
Cretaceous
Paleocene

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Euarchontoglires, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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