Miacoidea

Miacoidea Temporal range: early Paleocene to late Eocene
File:Miacis parvivorus Cope.jpg
skull of Miacis parvivorus
File:Viverravus minutus 2.jpg
skull of Viverravus minutus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Clade:	Carnivoramorpha
Superfamily:	†Miacoidea Cope, 1880
Families
†Miacidae †Viverravidae Incertae sedis: †"Sinopa" insectivorus

Miacoidea ("small points") is a former paraphyletic superfamily of extinct placental mammals that lived during the Paleocene and Eocene epochs, about 66-33,9 million years ago. This group had been traditionally divided into two families of primitive carnivorous mammals: Miacidae (the miacids) and Viverravidae (the viverravids). These mammals were basal to order Carnivora, the crown-group within the Carnivoramorpha.

Biology

Miacoids were mostly small carnivorous mammals, superficially reminiscent of martens or civets. They probably fed on invertebrates, lizards, birds and smaller mammals like shrews and rodents, while others may have been insectivores. Some species were arboreal, others lived on the ground. Their teeth and skull show that the miacoids were less developed than modern carnivores.

Classification

• Superfamily: †Miacoidea (Cope, 1880)
  • Family: †Miacidae (Cope, 1880)
  • Family: †Viverravidae (Wortman & Matthew, 1899)
  • Incertae sedis:
    • †"Sinopa" insectivorus (Cope, 1872)

Phylogeny

Ferungulata	Euungulata File:Equus quagga (white background).jpg Ferae Pholidota File:Pangolin Hardwicke (white background).jpg †Creodonta File:Hyaenodon horridus by R. B. Horsfall (coloured).jpg Carnivoramorpha ? †Ravenictis †Viverravidae ? †"Sinopa" insectivorus †Miacoidea †Miacidae File:Miacis restoration.jpg Carnivora File:Dogs, jackals, wolves, and foxes (Plate XI).jpg