Asioryctitheria ("Asian digging beasts") is an extinct order of early eutherians.
Skull structure With the exception of Prokennalestes, these advanced forms lacked a Meckelian groove. Furthermore, they were equipped with double-rooted canines, a lower premolar with a reduced or absent metaconid and a more elongated lower premolar than their predecessors. In addition, the entoconid and hypoconulid on the lower molars are untwinned, the entotympanic is non-existent, the alisphenoid is enlarged, a Vidian foramen is present as well as a promontorium linked to the paroccipital process via the crista interfenestralis.
Classification Asioryctitheria contains at least four genera and two families.Mikko's Phylogeny Archive Paleofile.com (net, info) . Sasayamamylos kawaii Kusuhashi et al., 2013 Kennalestidae Kielan-Jaworowska, 1981 Kennalestes gobiensis Kielan-Jaworowska, 1981 Asioryctidae Szalay, 1977 Asioryctes nemegetensis Kielan-Jaworowska, 1975 Ukhaatherium nesovi Novacek et al., 1997
References
Further reading Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, Richard L. Cifelli, and Zhe-Xi Luo, Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs: Origins, Evolution, and Structure (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 499–501.
External links MESOZOIC MAMMALS; Basal Eutheria Two, an internet directory A eutherian mammal from the Early Cretaceous of Russia at Ingenta