Hyainailouroidea Middle | |
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Comparison of various Early to Middle Miocene hyaenodonts, including the hyainailurids Hyainailouros sulzeri (top) and Megistotherium osteothlastes (center), and teratodontid Dissopsalis pyroclasticus | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | †Hyaenodonta |
Superfamily: | †Hyainailouroidea Borths, 2016[1] |
Families | |
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Hyainailouroidea ("hyena-cats") is a superfamily of extinct predatory mammals from extinct order Hyaenodonta. Fossil remains of these mammals are known from middle Eocene to late Miocene deposits in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.[2] Members of this group probably originate from Afro-Arabia, a continent that remained isolated from the Albian (Early Cretaceous, around 100 Ma) to the Miocene (around 16 Ma). While in North America and Eurasia hyaenodonts competed with other predatory mammals, in Afro-Arabia they remained the main terrestrial predators.[1]