The Primatomorpha are a proposed

mirorder Order ( la, wikt:ordo#Latin, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between Family_(biology), family and Class_(biology), class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomi ...

of mammals containing the flying lemurs (order Dermoptera or colugos) and lemurs (Strepsirrhini,

adapiformes Adapiformes is a group of early primates. Adapiforms radiated throughout much of the northern continental mass (now Europe, Asia and North America), reaching as far south as northern Africa and tropical Asia. They existed from the Eocene to the M ...

and

lemuriformes Lemuriformes is an infraorder of primate that falls under the suborder Strepsirrhini. It includes the lemurs of Madagascar, as well as the galagos and lorisids of Africa and Asia, although a popular alternative taxonomy places the lorisoids i ...

). However, notably, the haplorhini are sister to the lemurs, together forming the primate ( Plesiadapiformes and descendents) order within this group. Primatomorpha is sister to Scandentia, together forming the

Euarchonta The Euarchonta are a proposed grandorder of mammals: the order Scandentia (treeshrews), and its sister Primatomorpha mirorder, containing the Dermoptera or colugos and the primates (Plesiadapiformes and descendents). The term "Euarchonta" (mea ...

. The term "Primatomorpha" first appeared in the general scientific literature in 1991 (K.C. Beard) and 1992 (Kalandadze, Rautian). Major DNA sequence analyses of predominantly nuclear sequences (Murphy et al., 2001) support the

hypothesis, while a major study investigating mitochondrial sequences supports a different tree topology (Arnason et al., 2002). A study investigating

retrotransposon Retrotransposons (also called Class I transposable elements or transposons via RNA intermediates) are a type of genetic component that copy and paste themselves into different genomic locations (transposon) by converting RNA back into DNA through ...

presence/absence data has claimed strong support for Euarchonta (Kriegs et al., 2007). Some interpretations of the molecular data link Primates and Dermoptera in a clade (

) known as Primatomorpha, which is the sister of Scandentia. Primates probably split from the Dermoptera sister group 79.6 million years ago during the Cretaceous. Other interpretations link the Dermoptera and Scandentia together in a group called Sundatheria as the sister group of the primates. Some recent studies place Scandentia as sister of the Glires, invalidating Euarchonta.

References

Further reading