Viverravidae
| Viverravidae | |
|---|---|
| skull of Viverravus minutus | |
| skull of Didymictis protenus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Clade: | Pan-Carnivora |
| Clade: | Carnivoramorpha |
| Superfamily: | †Viverravoidea Wortman & Matthew, 1899 |
| Family: | †Viverravidae Wortman & Matthew, 1899 |
| Type genus | |
| †Viverravus Marsh, 1872 | |
| Genera | |
|
[see classification] | |
| Synonyms | |
|
synonyms of family:
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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.