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Miacids
Fossil range: Late Paleocene - Early Eocene
Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
(unranked): Carnivoramorpha
Superfamily: Miacoidea
Family: Miacidae
The miacids (Miacidae) were primitive carnivores which lived during the Paleocene and Eocene Epoch about 65—33 million years ago. Miacids existed for approximately 32 million years.
Miacids are thought to have evolved into today's modern carnivorous mammals of the order Carnivora. They were small marten-like carnivores with long, little bodies and long tails. Some species were arboreal while others lived on the ground.
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 the modern carnivores. They had Carnivora type carnassials but lacked fully ossified auditory bullae (rounded protrusions). They resembled Cimolestes, and this suggests that the order Carnivora evolved from a group of insectivores, related to Ungulates.
The miacids are divided into two groups: the miacines with a full complement of molars and the viverravines with a reduced number of molars and more specialized carnassials.
From Wikipedia