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| Miacidae | |
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| skull of Miacis parvivorus | |
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| skeleton of Vulpavus ovatus | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Clade: | Carnivoraformes |
| Family: | †Miacidae Cope, 1880[1] |
| Type genus | |
| †Miacis Cope, 1872
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| Genera | |
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[see classification]
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| Synonyms | |
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list of synonyms:
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Miacidae ("small points") is a former paraphyletic family of extinct primitive placental mammals that lived in North America, Europe and Asia during the Paleocene and Eocene epochs, about 65–33.9 million years ago.[9][10][11][12] These mammals were basal to order Carnivora, the crown-group within the Carnivoraformes.
Miacids are thought to have evolved into the modern carnivorous mammals of the order Carnivora. They were small carnivores, superficially marten-like or civet-like with long, lithe bodies and long tails. Some species were arboreal, while others lived on the ground.[13]
They probably fed on invertebrates, lizards, birds, and smaller mammals like shrews and opossums. Their teeth and skulls show that the miacids were less developed than modern carnivorans. They had carnivoran-type carnassials, but lacked fully ossified auditory bullae (rounded protrusions).
- ^ E. D. Cope (1880.) "On the genera of the Creodonta." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 19:76-82
- ^ W. D. Matthew (1909) "The Carnivora and Insectivora of the Bridger Basin, middle Eocene." Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 9:289-567
- ^ Haeckel, Ernst (1895). Systematische Phylogenie: Wirbelthiere (in German). Vol. T.3. Berlin: G. Reimer.
- ^ Trouessart, E. L. (1885) "Note sur le classification des Analgésiens et diagnoses d'espèces et de genres nouveaux." Bulletin de la Société d'études scientifiques d'Angers, 14, 46–89. [Publ. February, 1885. for year 1884.]
- ^ Kalandadze, N. N. and S. A. Rautian (1992.) "Systema mlekopitayushchikh i istorygeskaya zoogeographei [The system of mammals and historical zoogeography]." Sbornik Trudov Zoologicheskogo Muzeya Moskovskogo Goschdarstvennoro Universiteta 29:44–152.
- ^ Tielhard de Chardin, P. (1915) "Les carnassiers des phosphorites du Quercy" Annales de Paléontologie, 9, 101–192
- ^ Miklos Kretzoi (1945) "Bemerkungen über das Raubtiersystem." Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici, Budapest, vol. 38, pp. 59-83.
- ^ O. P. Hay (1902.) "Bibliography and Catalogue of the Fossil Vertebrata of North America." Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey 179:1-868
- ^ McKenna, Malcolm C.; Bell, Susan K. (1997). Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-11012-9. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
- ^ 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. ISBN 9780521355193
- ^ "Miacidae in the Paleobiology Database". Fossilworks. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- ^ IRMNG (2018). Miacidae Cope, 1880 †. Accessed at: http://www.irmng.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=102911 on 2019-01-22
- ^ Cost, Ian N. (2013-10-02). "Extinct Animal of the Week: Before Things Got Dire". Extinct Animal of the Week. Retrieved 2019-02-18.