Occurring in the Late Cretaceous from the Turonian to the Maastrichtian, they were an extremely successful group, with representatives present in Europe, Asia, India (and subsequently in Madagascar), Africa and North America, ostensibly rendering them a cosmopolitan clade.

They were specialised towards an herbivorous lifestyle and were in fact initially considered stem-ungulates,[2] but the presence of epipubics and "archaic" dental characters render them as non-placental eutherians.

There is evidence that zhelestids were in direct competition with another clade of Mesozoic herbivorous mammals, the multituberculates, being rarer in places where these were most common and vice versa.

[10] However, multituberculates eventually outlived zhelestids, surviving the K-Pg extinction event everywhere but Asia, where the niches taken by both clades in the Cretaceous would be taken by early rodents.

[11] Below is a phylogeny from Gheerbrant & Teodori (2021):[8] Nanolestes Peramus Vinceletes Kielantherium Deltatheridium Mayulestes Pucadelphys Eomaia Prokennalestes Murtoilestes Bobolestes Montanalestes Paranyctoides Sheikhdheilia Lainodon Alostera Eozhelestes Avitotherium Parazhelestes Aspanlestes Zhelestes Borisodon Gallolestes Eoungulatum Valentinella Azilestes Bulaklestes Daulestes Uchkududon Cimolestes Maelestes Batodon Kennalestes Asioryctes Ukhaatherium Deccanolestes Kulbeckia Zhangolestes Zalambdalestes Barunlestes Alymlestes Mistralestes Gypsonictops Leptictis Purgatorius Protungulatum Oxyprimus Arctocyon Vulpavus Miacis Diacodexis Hyopsodus Meniscotherium Phenacodus extant Placentalia