Trelatebrate Predecessors

The "Trelatebrates" is what I call the future order that contains the Deinognathids and Therapeds and a few other families of the future. I have been battling with myself over the ancestoral species for this group ever since I first created it. In the beginning, which was in 1993, I thought they would derive from modern swine, or pigs. But at first, that wasn't the way I designed them. I thought their feet more resembled those of aardvarks. But I honestly believe the aardvarks are doomed and will have no descendants in the Metazoic. Then I thought of hyrax, but I think that too would be an impossibility. I have a family in the Metazoic derived from hyrax already. Doesn't mean they couldn't have more descendants, but I think evolving into tomorrow's Deinognathids would be impossible. Then I thought of horses, because of the head design, but then that could just be parallel evolution. And one of my buds recently said for an animal like Deinognathus to come from horses, even indirectly, would be an evolutionary impossibility. So he suggested chevrotains. They are small, hooved, and semi-carnivorous. So for a long time I've been going with that.

So this past weekend everyone has been telling me for a family such as this to evolve from chevs is impossible. One person suggested I have the pteropods as the ancestoral species for this family. At first I thought maybe he was bullshitting me (sorry, but it's true). I read his reply and said I'd think it over. I would LOVE nothing more than to have a final ancestoral species for this group. There has got to be one!! This is too good an order to just up and throw away! Whatever the ancestoral species would be, it would have to be something highly adaptable, that could live in any climate or adapt to any climate and any change. I think the people of this forum want me to make felines the ancestoral species for Deinognathids. I thought about that last night, and at first I said to myself "What a horrible thought!!" Then I thought it would be impossible. The same species that would give rise to the Deinognathids would also have to give rise to omnivorous therapeds and other families within the group that are more vegetarian than carnivorous. Besides, I don't think there is any way on Earth felines could ever develop hooves. So felines would be impossible to derive such species as these. Thank GOD!!! So I am not stuck yet. So then I thought about elephant shrews. They are omnivorous, active during daylight hours, and their feet are still soft, while still having the potential to develop hooves. Also they have recently been found to be closely related to elephants, in a sense, hooved mammals. The only problem is that elephant shrews are confined to Africa. But even that problem can be solved. As they get bigger, and Africa collides with Europe and Asia collides with the northernmost tip of the USA, it is possible they could migrate. All these facts make the elephant shrews a good candidate. If they survive human encroachment, they will likely become the ancestoral species to all Trelatebrates of the Metazoic. They are getting bigger. Let's hope humans don't kill off this family. Even though we won't be here, and this is indeed speculative, I'd love to be watching from above and see what creatures evolve to create the animals of tomorrow.