Orycteropodidae

Orycteropodidae is a family of Afrotherian mammals. Although there are many fossil species, the only species surviving today is the aardvark, Orycteropus afer. Orycteropodidae is recognized as the only family within the order Tubulidentata, so the two are effectively synonyms.

Representatives of the order Tubulidentata have been located from the Oligocene in what is now Europe, and it is believed that the order probably originated around 65–70 million years ago or in the Paleocene. They are thought to be closely related to the now extinct Ptolemaiida, a lineage of carnivorous afrotheres. The family arose in Africa in the Early Miocene Epoch, and spread to Eurasia later in the Miocene. Most of the family's diversity had become extinct by the end of the Pliocene.

Characters
A few anatomical characters unite the Orycteropodidae and Tubulidentata.


 * the occipital region has extensive mastoid exposure
 * the teeth have a distinctive structure called tubulidentate microstructure
 * the femur has a pectineal tubercle
 * the diaphysis of the tibia is curved mediolaterally

Classification
This classification follows Lehmann 2009.


 * Genus Amphiorycteropus Lehmann 2009
 * † Amphiorycteropus gaudryi (Major, 1888) - type species
 * † Amphiorycteropus abundulafus (Lehmann et al., 2005)
 * † Amphiorycteropus browni (Colbert, 1933) (= Orycteropus pilgrimi Colbert, 1933)
 * † Amphiorycteropus depereti (Helbing, 1933)
 * † Amphiorycteropus mauritanicus (Arambourg, 1959)


 * † affinis (resembling) Amphiorycteropus
 * † aff. Amphiorycteropus pottieri (Ozansoy, 1965)
 * † aff. Amphiorycteropus seni (Tekkaya, 1993)


 * Genus Orycteropus Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 1796
 * Orycteropus afer - Aardvark (type species)
 * † Orycteropus crassidens MacInnes, 1956
 * † Orycteropus djourabensis Lehmann et al., 2004
 * † Orycteropus abundulafus Lehmann, 2005


 * Genus †Leptorycteropus Patterson, 1975
 * †Leptorycteropus guilielmi Patterson, 1975 - type species


 * Genus † Myorycteropus MacInnes, 1956
 * † Myorycteropus africanus MacInnes, 1956 - type species


 * † affinis (resembling) Myorycteropus
 * † aff. Myorycteropus chemeldoi (Pickford, 1975)
 * † aff. Myorycteropus minutus (Pickford, 1975)