Placentalia
infraclass of eutherian mammals
Placentalia () is one of the three extant subdivisions of the class Mammalia, the other two being Monotremata and Marsupialia. Placentalia contains the vast majority of extant mammals, which are partly distinguished from monotremes and marsupials in that the fetus is carried in the uterus of its mother to a relatively late stage of development. The name is something of a misnomer, considering that marsupials also nourish their fetuses via a placenta, though for a relatively briefer period, giving birth to less-developed young, which are then nurtured for a period inside the mother's pouch. Placentalia represents the only living group within Eutheria, which contains all mammals that are more closely related to placentals than they are to marsupials.
Anatomical features
Placental mammals are anatomically distinguished from other mammals by:
a sufficiently wide opening at the bottom of the pelvis to allow the birth of a large baby relative to the size of the mother.
the absence of epipubic bones extending forward from the pelvis, which are found in all other mammals. (Their function in non-placental mammals is to stiffen the body during locomotion, but in placentals they would inhibit the expansion of the abdomen during pregnancy.)
the rearmost bones of the foot fit into a socket formed by the ends of the tibia and fibula, forming a complete mortise and tenon upper ankle joint.
the presence of a malleolus at the bottom of the fibula.
instead of a cloaca like monotremes, marsupials and most other vertebrates, the urogenital ducts exit through the vulva or penis and the rectum opens as the anus.
the presence of a corpus callosum in between the cerebral hemispheres.
“Placentalia” enters the record as infraclass of eutherian mammals. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Placentalia, infraclass and eutherian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q25833. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Placentalia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.