Carnivoramorpha

Carnivoramorpha Temporal range: early Paleocene to present
File:Carnivoramorpha.jpg
Diversity of Carnivoramorpha
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Mirorder:	Ferae
Clade:	Pan-Carnivora
Clade:	Carnivoramorpha Wyss & Flynn, 1993
Subgroups
[see classification]
Synonyms
Carnivora (Rose, 2012) Carnivoramoepha (Matsui & Kimura, 2022) Carnivoramomorpha (Wyss & Flynn, 1993)

Carnivoramorpha ("carnivoran-like forms") is a clade of placental mammals of clade Pan-Carnivora from mirorder Ferae, that includes the modern order Carnivora as well as extinct stem-group relatives that are more closely related to Carnivora proper than to "creodonts".

General characteristics

The common feature for members of this clade is the presence of the carnassial teeth. The carnassial teeth of the Carnivoramorpha are upper premolar P4 and lower molar m1.

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Comparison of carnassial teeth of a carnivoran (wolf), a hyaenodontid (Hyaenodon) and an oxyaenid (Oxyaena)

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skull of wolf

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skull of Viverravus minutus

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skull of Vulpavus profectus

Classification and phylogeny

Traditional classification

Clade: Carnivoramorpha (Wyss & Flynn, 1993) [carnivorans + all basal clades to Carnivora, but without creodonts] Order: Carnivora (Bowdich, 1821) (carnivorans) Suborder: Caniformia (Kretzoi, 1943) ("dog-like" carnivorans) Suborder: Feliformia (Kretzoi, 1945) ("cat-like" carnivorans) Incertae sedis: Genus: †Palaeogale (von Meyer, 1846) Superfamily: †Miacoidea (Cope, 1880) Family: †Miacidae (Cope, 1880) Family: †Viverravidae (Wortman & Matthew, 1899) Incertae sedis: †"Sinopa" insectivorus (Cope, 1872) Incertae sedis: Genus: †Ravenictis (Fox & Youzwyshyn, 1994) †Carnivoramorpha sp. [UALVP 31176] (Fox & Youzwyshyn, 1994)

Revised classification

Recent phylogenetic studies indicate that the superfamily Miacoidea and family Miacidae are paraphyletic, with "miacids" being more closely related to carnivorans than to viverravids. In 2010 Flynn, Finarelli & Spaulding named a new clade Carnivoraformes within Carnivoramorpha, containing carnivorans and "miacids" but not viverravids. The authors defined Carnivoraformes as the clade containing Carnivora and all taxa that are more closely related to Carnivora (represented by Canis lupus) than to viverravids (represented by Viverravus gracilis).

Clade: Carnivoramorpha (Wyss & Flynn, 1993) [= Carnivora (sensu lato)] Clade: Carnivoraformes (Flynn, 2010) [= Clade "A"] Genus: †Africtis (Mattingly, 2020) Genus: †Dawsonicyon (Spaulding, Flynn & Stucky, 2010) Genus: †Miacis (Cope, 1872) (unranked): Clade "B" Family: †Quercygalidae (Kretzoi, 1945) (unranked): †Gracilocyon/Oodectes clade Genus: †Eogale (Beard & Dawson, 2009) Genus: †Gracilocyon (paraphyletic genus) (Smith & Smith, 2010) Genus: †Oodectes (paraphyletic genus) (Wortman, 1901) Genus: †Paramiacis (Mathis, 1985) Genus: †Paroodectes (Springhorn, 1980) Incertae sedis: †"Miacis" sp. [CM 67873 & CM 77299] (Beard & Dawson, 2009) Genus: †Messelogale (Springhorn, 2000) Genus: †Miocyon (Matthew, 1909) Genus: †Simamphicyon (Viret, 1942) Genus: †Uintacyon (paraphyletic genus) (Leidy, 1872) Genus: †Xinyuictis (Zheng, 1975) Genus: †Zodiocyon (Tong & Wang, 2006) (unranked): Clade "C" Genus: †Dormaalocyon (Solé, 2014) (unranked): †Vulpavus clade Genus: †Palaearctonyx (Matthew, 1909) Genus: †Vassacyon (Matthew, 1909) Genus: †Vulpavus (paraphyletic genus) (Marsh, 1871) Incertae sedis: †"Miacis" deutschi (Gingerich, 1983) †"Miacis" exiguus (Matthew & Granger, 1915) (unranked): Clade "D" Order: Carnivora [sensu stricto] (Bowdich, 1821) (carnivorans) [= Clade "E"] Genus: †Ceruttia (Tomiya, 2013) Genus: †Harpalodon (Marsh, 1872) Genus: †Lycarion (Matthew, 1909) Genus: †Neovulpavus (Wortman, 1901) Genus: †Procynodictis (Wortman & Matthew, 1899) Genus: †Prodaphaenus (Wortman & Matthew, 1899) Genus: †Tapocyon (Stock, 1934) Genus: †Walshius (Tomiya, 2013) Incertae sedis: †"Miacis" gracilis (Clark, 1939) †"Miacis" hargeri (Wortman, 1901) †"Miacis" invictus (Matthew & Granger, 1925) †"Miacis" lushiensis (Chow, 1975) †Carnivoraformes sp. [SDSNH 49600] (Poust & Tomiya, 2024) Incertae sedis: †"Miacis" boqinghensis (Huang, 1999) †"Miacis" hookwayi (Stock, 1934) †"Miacis" latidens (Matthew & Granger, 1915) †"Miacis" petilus (Gingerich, 1983) †Carnivoraformes undet. Genus A (Tomiya, 2013) †Carnivoraformes undet. Genus B (Tomiya, 2013) ichnotaxa of Carnivoraformes: Ichnogenus: †Falcatipes (Sargeant & Langston, 1994) (unranked): †Viverravidae [sensu lato] Superfamily: †Viverravoidea (Wortman & Matthew, 1899) Family: †Viverravidae [sensu stricto] (Wortman & Matthew, 1899) Genus: †Ravenictis (Fox & Youzwyshyn, 1994) Incertae sedis: †Carnivoramorpha sp. [UALVP 50993 & UALVP 50994] (Fox, Scott & Rankin, 2010) Incertae sedis: †"Sinopa" insectivorus (Cope, 1872) †Carnivoramorpha sp. [UALVP 31176] (Fox & Youzwyshyn, 1994) †Carnivoramorpha sp. [USNM 538395] (Rose, 2012)

See also

• Mammal classification
• Ferae
• Miacoidea

Further reading

• C. M. Janis, J. A. Baskin, A. Berta, J. J. Flynn, G. F. Gunnell, R. M. Hunt jr., L. D. Martin, and K. Munthe (1998.) "Carnivorous mammals." In C. M. Janis, K. M. Scott, and L. L. Jacobs (eds.) "Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America. Volume 1: Terrestrial Carnivores, Ungulates, and Ungulatelike Mammals." Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• K. D. Rose and J. D. Archibold (2005) "The Rise of Placental Mammals: Origins and Relationships of the Major Extant Clades", Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins University Press
• K. D. Rose and J. D. Archibold (2005) "Womb with a View: the Rise of Placentals." In: K. D. Rose and J. D. Archibold "The Rise of Placental Mammals: Origins and Relationships of the Major Extant Clades", Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins University Press
• Stiles, David P. (2005) "An investigation of the Vulpes and Urocyon phylogenetic classification: Feliformia or Caniformia?" Fox Phylogeny. Vertebrate Evolution – Fall 2005, The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA.
• Wesley-Hunt, Gina D. (2005) "The Morphological Diversification of Carnivores in North America." Paleobiology. Vol. 31, Issue 1, pp. 35–55.
• Benton, Michael J. and Philip C. J. Donoghue (2007) "Paleontological Evidence to Date the Tree of Life.", Molecular Biology and Evolution, Volume 24, Issue 1, Pages 26–53
• Susumu Tomiya, Shawn P. Zack, Michelle Spaulding and John J. Flynn (2019.) "Carnivorous mammals from the Middle Eocene Washakie formation, Wyoming, U.S.A., and their diversity trajectory in a post-warming world", in "The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 79th annual meeting"