Pachydermata
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- "Pachyderm" redirects here. For the recording studio, see Pachyderm Studio
The Pachydermata (meaning "thick skin") is an obsolete order of mammals described by Georges Cuvier and at one time recognised by many systematists. Because it is polyphyletic, the order Pachydermata is no longer in use, but it is important in the history of systematics. Although it is often described as an artificial grouping of unrelated mammals, it was recognised as a grade of hooved mammals to the exception of other Ungulates by zoologists such as Charles Darwin, and anatomical characters do support the affinities of "Pachyderm" mammals to each other and to other Ungulates.
Cuvier's Pachydermata included the mammals now placed within Perissodactyla, Hyracoidea, and Proboscidea, as well as the Suina within Artiodactyla. Therefore modern "Pachydermata" would be represented by the horses and their relatives, the tapirs, the rhinoceroses, the elephants, the hippopotamuses, the peccaries and the pigs.
The term "pachyderm" is now often, even usually used, to describe a proboscid, especially an elephant.
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