Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A taxonomic order within the infraclass Placentalia — the tree shrews.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a small order comprising only the tree shrews: in some classifications tree shrews are considered either primates (and included in the suborder Prosimii) or true insectivores (and included in the order Insectivora)

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The Philippine tree shrew (Urogale everetti), in the order Scandentia, which is found on Mindanao, Dinagat, and Siargao Islands, represents an endemic, monotypic genus.

    Mindanao-Eastern Visayas rain forests 2007

  • Archonta was first named by William King Gregory in 1910* to house Scandentia (tree shrews), Chiroptera, Dermoptera and Primates (Gregory also included sengis/elephant shrews within Archonta, but they were later removed from it as their affinities clearly lie elsewhere).

    Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • Archonta was first named by William King Gregory in 1910* to house Scandentia (tree shrews), Chiroptera, Dermoptera and Primates (Gregory also included sengis/elephant shrews within Archonta, but they were later removed from it as their affinities clearly lie elsewhere).

    We flightless primates Darren Naish 2006

  • Bat diphyly is not currently favoured by the evidence, and even Archonta has now fallen by the wayside: DNA-based phylogenies now indicate that, while Scandentia, Dermoptera and Primates probably do form a clade – the newly dubbed Euarchonta – bats aren’t close relatives of euarchontans at all.

    Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • Bat diphyly is not currently favoured by the evidence, and even Archonta has now fallen by the wayside: DNA-based phylogenies now indicate that, while Scandentia, Dermoptera and Primates probably do form a clade – the newly dubbed Euarchonta – bats aren’t close relatives of euarchontans at all.

    We flightless primates Darren Naish 2006

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