Viverravidae

Also known as Didymictida, Didymictidae, Viverravidea, Viverravinae

Viverravidae ("ancestors of viverrids") is an extinct monophyletic family of mammals from extinct superfamily Viverravoidea within the clade Carnivoramorpha, that lived from the early Palaeocene to the late Eocene in North America, Europe and Asia. They were once thought to be the earliest carnivorans and ancestral to extant ones, but now are placed outside the order Carnivora based on cranial morphology as relatives (a plesion-group) to extant carnivorans.

In the Vinony graph

Within Vinony's link graph, Viverravidae is referenced by 122 other articles, and connects out to Paleocene, Ferae and Carnivoramorpha.

It is catalogued under topics including Eocene extinctions, Long stubs with short prose and Paleocene first appearances.

Its subject is documented across 13 Wikipedia language editions.

Wikidata facts

Image: Viverravus minutus 2.jpg

Show 3 more facts

taxon name: Viverravidae
start time: 66000000-0
end time: 40000000-0

Sources (2)

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Encyclopedic overview

6 sections

Contents

General characteristics
Classification and phylogeny
Classification
Phylogeny
See also
References

==General characteristics== Wang and Tedford propose that they arose in North America 66–60 million years ago, spread to Asia then later to Europe, and were the first carnivoramorphans and possessed the first true pair of carnassial teeth. In viverravids, the skull is elongated and the number of molars is reduced to two (M1/m1 and M2/m2 are present and M3/m3 are absent).

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Viverravidae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.