Panserinia




 * Class Paramammalia
 * Order Panserinia
 * Superorder †Protoautrophia
 * Superorder Dracopendria
 * Superorder Artiopacria

Panserinia are the first modern group of paramammals to evolve. They first evolved in the Campanian of New Zealand, with the superorder †Protoautrophia. This superorder is characterized by typically long bodies and short limbs, like a dachshund. The earliest species †Astrospinas lagamensis was reminiscent of a star nosed mole, although it had a longer body, had webbed feet like those seen in ducks, and lacked the twelve nose tentacles to detect prey. Evidence of webbed feet shows that †Astrospinas was semi-aquatic, and likely hunted worms in the rivers of New Zealand. †Astrospinas is the type species in a recently named order, the †Astrospiniformes. Many were small and looked fairly similar to †Astrospinas, except for a large ocean dwelling species, †Natasacetus broomei. This 2 metre piscivore was highly reminiscent of †Ambulocetus, and had webbed feet again like ducks and a long body, with a long horizontally compressed tail like those seen in beavers. The †Protoautrophia were not diverse and died out at the end of the Campanian.

The second superorder are the Dracopendria. These are the most diverse of the modern groups. They first appeared in the early Maastrichtian, and started off as squirrel like animals but very quickly diversified afterwards. They were mainly bipedal herbivores, with webbed, duck like feet. After the Maastrichtian, they started to evolve more diverse body shapes. Some, like †Petaurumimus, evolved to take to the air, becoming almost like sugar gliders. Some evolved into deer-like forms with finch like skulls. By the Eocene, a new family of Dracopendria evolved, the Ornithorostroids. They evolved increasingly †Leaellynasaura like bodies, with enormously long tails and incredibly thick integument, and began to inhabit the mountainous regions of southern New Zealand. When the tree ferns grew back, so did the cold temperatures. Today's modern species are of particular interest to researchers, as there is evidence that they are some of the most intelligent animals on the planet. They have been confirmed to be self-aware, and have incredible thinking skills and even a language. While mostly solitary, they have a specific click that could be called their "name". Today the Dracopendria has many wombat, ornithopod, chalicothere, and other forms. They can distinguished by other groups in that they seem to have increasingly mammalian like skulls. However, their ovipera's are also larger, and their thickness is depended on where they lived. Desert species have thinner pouches and the ovipera's tend to sag a little. The mountainous animals, like Ornithorhynchus on the other hand have a thin layering of fat, then very long fur, and their ovipera's tend to not sag as much.

The second, but less common extant group are the Artiopacria. Not much is known about their evolutionary history, but extant species are rather well known. Artiopacria are the most cold adapted of all Panserinians, and live almost entirely in Antarctica, although two species have been found in some tiny Zealandia islands. Artiopacria have long bodies and long tails, as well as short limbs and very thick integument not seen in other Panserinians. They have two, sometimes three layers of integument to keep warm. They also seem to have lost their beaks altogether. Most have evolved a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Kinderhannes salieticas, a semi-aquatic Artiopacria from literally the edge of the South Pole, has evolved extreme traits to survive so far into Antarctica. Sometimes noses will be blocked by snow and ice, so they use ignis organ to heat up their noses and sneeze, clearing and melting the snow. How they manage to heat their noses and how the ignis organ works is still a mystery. They have denser bones than other Panserinians, the aquatic species will have the densest bones of the group, while the terrestrial species have slightly more hollow bones. Their oviperas are also slightly different. Because they have so much fat and furry integument, the ovipera is tightly packed, and so unlike the Dracopendrians it doesn't sag under the eggs weight. The oil they produce is on average more sticky and even hotter than those of Dracopendria, almost like a hot glue gun, although not as hot. The fact that they have the ability to heat their noses and their oil gives them an alternative taxonomical name, Rivulupendira. In order to do this is thought that they eat more food than any other Panserinian, giving them a rapid burn off of high caloric intake. They also seem to eat particularly oily fish, which may help with the stickiness of their oil and even be used as the equivalent of fuel for the ignis organ. There was even a one off case where a Sedercalpus was seen grazing on the southern tip of Zealandia during a lightning storm. It was struck by lighting, and as a result was set on fire. They can also use their ignis organ to release particularly strong smelling pheromones, described as something like coffee and vanilla. In addition, they can heat their ignis organ to heat their breath. This has given them the nickname "dragon".

Panserinians aren't the most diverse paramammal, but they have incredibly biology that is more complex than anything we've ever found yet.