Monotremata, Insectivora,
Scandentia and Cetacea show a 'primitive splenic type' distinguished by a closed circulation.
It is accepted that the closest living ancestors of primates are "the
Scandentia (tree shrews) and Dermoptera (flying lemurs) of the Archontan branch of Euarchontoglires", while the more distant are the "Glires branch includes rodents and lagomorphs".
The tree shrew, Tupaia belangeri, which belongs to the Tupaiidae of
Scandentia and is found primarily in China, Vietnam and Burma, attracted the attention of biomedical researchers when it was initially thought to be the only non-primate that could be infected by hepatitis virus.
Two species from the order
Scandentia and five species from Rodentia, which are recorded in "Terrestrial Small Mammals" by Faisal Ali Anwarali Khan, Nurshilawati Latip, Rafik Murni, Nur Mukminah Naharuddin, Pui Chai Fung, Nur Elfieyra Syazana Hamdan, Mathew Jenang, Shafri Semawi, Mohd-Azlan Jayasilan and Andrew Alek Tuen are common species.
This may be due to the placement here of Tupaia belangeri, the representative of the
Scandentia, nearer to the Carnivora than Myotis lucifugus, a placement that is not consistent with other studies [16].
Here we use the concept prey mammals as any terrestrial species, excluding the Australian ones, not belonging to the order Carnivora (Orders Didelphimorphia, Paucituberculata, Microbiotheria, Tubulidentata, Macroscelidea, Hyracoidea, Proboscidea, Xenarthra,
Scandentia, Dermoptera, Primates, Rodentia, Lagomorpha, Insectivora, Pholidota, Perissodactyla, and Artiodactyla).
A preliminary qualitative analysis of the axial skeleton of tupaiids (Mammalia,
Scandentia): functional morphology and phylogenetic implications.
