A paper in this week’s Science uses a lot of data to construct the most complete phylogeny yet of mammalian families. http://whyevolutionistrue.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/f1-large.jpg from: A new phylogeny of the mammals Why Evolution Is True
Thanks Zooplantman I found this very interesting. I'm not sure if the fact that some family names appear twice means that some of the species should be incorporated into separate families, but I have noticed some splitting, such as the 'Miniopteridae' has been split from the vesper bats (Vespertilionidae). The tree shrews seem to have been placed nearer rabbits than showing links with primates, while the fruit bats have been placed in the middle of the other bats. I suspect that there will be other ways of classifying mammals and placing elephants with the hoofed mammals even makes the new Lynx Handbook of Mammals out of date. Interestingly, perissodactyls have been moved away from being close to the carnivores and are back near the artiodactyls again. I hope to have a look at the article tomorrow.