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Paratheria

Paratheria is a genus of African and Caribbean plants in the grass family.

Species
  1. Paratheria glaberrima C.E.Hubb. - Sierra Leone, Congo Republic
  2. Paratheria prostrata Griseb. - Sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia to Namibia and Madagascar; Costa Rica, Cuba, Hispaniola, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana, Bolivia, Brazil
Paratheria (mammals)

Paratheria is an obsolete term for a taxonomic group including the xenarthran mammals ( sloths, anteaters, and armadillos) and various groups thought to be related to them. It was proposed by Oldfield Thomas in 1887 to set apart the sloths, anteaters, armadillos, and pangolins, usually classified as placentals, from both marsupial and placental mammals, an arrangement that received little support from other workers. When teeth of the extinct gondwanathere mammals were first discovered in Argentina in the 1980s, they were thought to be related to xenarthrans, leading to renewed attention for the hypothesis that xenarthrans are not placentals. However, by the early 1990s, gondwanatheres were shown to be unrelated to xenarthrans, and xenarthrans are still considered to be placentals.