Paranyctoides (Archibald and Averianov, 2001)

Wible, JR, Rougier, GW, Novacek, MJ & Asher, RJ, 2009, The Eutherian Mammal Maelestes Gobiensis From The Late Cretaceous Of Mongolia And The Phylogeny Of Cretaceous Eutheria, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2009 (327), pp. 1-123 : 73

Paranyctoides and Eozhelestes

Paranyctoides is a rare genus known from dentary fragments and isolated teeth from the Late Cretaceous of North American ( Fox, 1979, 1984; Lillegraven and McKenna, 1986; Cifelli, 1990) and from the Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan (Archibald and Averianov, 2001; Averianov and Archibald, 2003). Paranyctoides was tentatively referred by Fox (1979) to Nyctitheriidae , an early Tertiary Laurasian family of lipotyphlans (or possibly archontans according to Hooker, 2001). This referral was followed by Kielan- Jaworowska et al. (2004), whereas McKenna and Bell (1997) referred Paranyctoides to the more inclusive Soricomorpha . In contrast, the phylogenetic analyses by Nessov et al. (1998) and Archibald et al. (2001) support affinities between Paranyctoides and zhelestids, either as the first outgroup to ‘‘Ungulatomorpha’’ (zhelestids and Protungula- tum) in the former or as sister taxon to the North American zhelestid Gallolestes in the latter (fig. 31B). Wible et al. (2007) also noted the zhelestid-like nature of Paranyctoides , identifying it as as sister taxon to Eozhelestes (figs. 29: K, 30) from the early Cenomanian of Uzbekistan, which, as noted above, is thought to be a zhelestid by Averianov and Archibald (2005). Supporting this clade are three synapomorphies (appendix 4: node K): lower canine small (character 25); penultimate lower premolar paraconid distinctive (character 52); and m2 labial postcingulid present (character 126).