Here we show that progress towards a reliable phylogeny for placental mammals at the ordinal level continues apace. We draw especially upon insights from the recent" International Symposium on the Origin of Mammalian Orders" held at The Graduate University of Advanced Study, Hayama, Japan (21-25 July 1998), partic? ularly work not incorporated in the re? mainder of this issue or published else? where. Abstracts to talks and posters presented at this meeting can be found at www. utexas. edu/ftp/depts/systbiol/. The talks fell into three main sections, which we will now consider, followed by a summary where we present our current best estimate of the tree for placental mammals.