Technical comment on "The placental mammal ancestor and the post-K-Pg radiation of placentals".

O'Leary et al. (Research Article, 8 February 2013, p. 662) examined mammalian relationships and divergence times and concluded that a single placental ancestor crossed the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary. This conclusion relies on phylogenetic analyses that fail to discriminate between homology and homoplasy and further implies virus-like rates of nucleotide substitution in early Paleocene placentals.