Eutheria

Eutheria (from Ancient Greek ευθήριον, euthērion, meaning "true/good beasts") is the clade consisting of primates, armadillos, and all other mammals—in many orders—that are more closely related to them than they are to marsupials. Placentalia is the clade originating with the last common ancestor of extant eutherians. Since Placentalia therefore includes all living eutherians, the nonplacental eutherians are necessarily extinct; the picture to the right shows a fossil of one such animal, Eomaia.

Eutherians are distinguished from noneutherians by various features of the feet, ankles, jaws and teeth. One of the major differences between placental and nonplacental eutherians is that placentals lack epipubic bones, which are present in all other fossil and living mammals (monotremes and marsupials).

The oldest known eutherian species is Juramaia sinensis, dated at from the Jurassic in China. The previously earliest known fossil eutherian, Eomaia scansoria, was also from China and is dated to the Early Cretaceous period, about.

"Eutheria" was introduced by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1880, meant to be broader in definition than "Placentalia", the term previously in use.

Characteristics
There are no living nonplacental eutherians, and so knowledge of their synapomorphies ("defining features") is entirely based on a few fossils, which means the reproductive features that distinguish modern placentals from other mammals cannot be used in defining Eutheria. The features of Eutheria that distinguish them from metatherians, a group that includes modern marsupials, are:
 * an enlarged malleolus ("little hammer") at the bottom of the tibia, the larger of the two shin bones.
 * the joint between the first metatarsal bone and the entocuneiform bone in the foot is offset further back than the joint between the second metatarsal and mesocuneiform bones – in metatherians these joints are level with each other.
 * various features of jaws and teeth.

Reproductive features are also of no use in identifying fossil placental mammals, which are distinguished from other eutherians by:
 * the presence of a malleolus at the bottom of the fibula, the smaller of the two shin bones.
 * a complete mortise and tenon upper ankle joint, where the rearmost bones of the foot fit into a socket formed by the ends of the tibia and fibula.
 * a wide opening at the bottom of the pelvis, which allows the birth of large, well-developed offspring. Marsupials have and nonplacental eutherians had a narrower opening that allows only small, immature offspring to pass through.
 * the absence of epipubic bones extending forward from the pelvis, which are not found in any placental, but are found in all other mammals – nonplacental eutherians, marsupials, monotremes and mammaliformes – and even in the cynodont therapsids that are closest to mammals. Their function is to stiffen the body during locomotion. This stiffening would be harmful in pregnant placentals, whose abdomens need to expand.

Subgroups
These are the subgroups of extant members of Eutheria: These groups together make up the crown group Placentalia (placental mammals). Eutheria also includes now extinct lineages that lie outside of Placentalia (see below).
 * Boreoeutheria, e.g. badgers, rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs, dolphins
 * Euarchontoglires, e.g. humans, monkeys, rats, hares
 * Laurasiatheria, e.g. cattle, whales, bats, cats
 * Xenarthra, e.g. armadillos, anteaters
 * Afrotheria, e.g. elephants, manatees

Another now extinct clade - the Meridiungulata - a set of ungulates from South America appear to group with the Afrotheria and the Xenarthria.

Analysis of transposable element insertions around the time of divergence of Boreoeutheria, Afrotheria, and Xenarthra strongly support a near-concomitant origin (trifurcation) of these three superorders, making further subdivision impractical and meaningless. These observations eliminate the need to choose between the previously proposed groupings of Boreoeutheria and Xenarthra (Exafroplacentalia), Afrotheria and Xenarthra (Atlantogenata)  , Afrotheria and Boreoeutheria (Epitheria).

The eutherian root appears to lie between Atlantogenata and Boreoeutheria.