Whippomorpha

Whippomorpha Temporal range: Early Eocene to present
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Clade:	Cetancodontamorpha
Suborder:	Whippomorpha Waddell et al. 1999
Taxa
Hippopotamoidea †Anthracotheriidae Hippopotamidae †Dichobunoidea †Mixtotheriidae †Dichobunidae †Helohyidae †Cebochoeridae Cetaceomorpha †Raoellidae Cetacea

Cladogram showing Whippomorpha within Artiodactylamorpha. Whippomorpha consists of the clades labeled Hippo and Cetaceamorpha.

Whippomorpha is the clade containing the Cetacea (whales, dolphins, etc.) and their closest living relatives, the hippopotamuses, named by Waddell et al. (1999).^[1] It is defined as a crown group, including all species that are descendants of the most recent common ancestor of Hippopotamus amphibius and Tursiops truncatus.^[1] This would be a sub-grouping of the Cetartiodactyla (which also includes pigs and ruminants). It is not clear how recently whales and hippos share a common ancestor, though the genetic evidence is strong that the cetaceans arose from within the Artiodactyla, thus making the even-toed ungulate grouping a paraphyletic one.^[2]

Whippomorpha is a mixture of English (wh[ale] + hippo[potamus]) and Greek (μορφή, morphe = form). Attempts have been made to rename the clade Cetancodonta^[3] but Whippomorpha maintains precedent.^[4]

Artiodactyla	Tylopoda    Artiofabula     Suina        Cetruminantia     Ruminantia    Whippomorpha     Hippopotamidae  Cetacea

References

1. Waddell, P. J.; Okada, N.; Hasegawa, M. (1999). "Towards Resolving the Interordinal Relationships of Placental Mammals". Systematic Biology 48 (1): 1–5. doi:10.1093/sysbio/48.1.1. JSTOR 2585262. PMID 12078634.
2. Beck, Robin MD; Bininda-Emonds, Olaf RP; Cardillo, Marcel; Liu, Fu-Guo; Purvis, Andy (2006). "A higher-level MRP supertree of placental mammals". BMC Evolutionary Biology 6: 93. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-6-93. PMC 1654192. PMID 17101039.
3. Spaulding, Michelle; O'Leary, Maureen A.; Gatesy, John (2009). Farke, Andrew Allen, ed. "Relationships of Cetacea (Artiodactyla) Among Mammals: Increased Taxon Sampling Alters Interpretations of Key Fossils and Character Evolution". PLoS ONE 4 (9): e7062. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007062. PMC 2740860. PMID 19774069.
4. Asher, Robert J.; Helgen, Kristofer M. (2010). "Nomenclature and placental mammal phylogeny". BMC Evolutionary Biology 10: 102. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-102. PMC 2865478. PMID 20406454.