Miacoidea Explained

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.^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]} 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
  • • • • • Family: †Miacidae Family: †Viverravidae Incertae sedis:
    • †"Sinopa" insectivorus

Notes and References

1. J. J. Hooker (1986.) "Mammals from the Bartonian (middle/late Eocene) of the Hampshire Basin, southern England." Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) 39(4):191-478
2. Robert L. Carroll (1988.) "Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution." W. H. Freeman and Company, New York,
3. Book: McKenna . Malcolm C. . Bell . Susan K. . Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level . 16 March 2015 . 1997 . Columbia University Press . New York . 978-0-231-11012-9.
4. J. J. Flynn (1998.) "Early Cenozoic Carnivora ("Miacoidea")." 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.
5. T. J. Meehan and R. W. Wilson (2002) "New viverravids from the Torrejonian (Middle Paleocene) of Kutz Canyon, New Mexico and the oldest skull of the order Carnivora." Journal of Paleontology 76(6):1091-1101
6. K. D. Rose, A. E. Chew, R. H. Dunn, M. J. Kraus, H. C. Fricke and S. P. Zack (2012) "Earliest Eocene mammalian fauna from the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum at Sand Creek Divide, southern Bighorn Basin, Wyoming." University of Michigan Papers on Paleontology 36:1-122