Miacidae

Miacidae 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. These mammals were basal to order Carnivora, the crown-group within the Carnivoraformes.

Miacidae

Ryan Schwark · CC0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
CarnivoraformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 91 occurrencesPaleocene — about 12 of 91 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 79 of 91 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 91 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 2 occurrences64–63 Mya — about 2 occurrences63–62 Mya — about 2 occurrences62–61 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 1 occurrence60–59 Mya — about 1 occurrence59–58 Mya — about 1 occurrence58–57 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 3 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 7 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 7 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 7 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 6 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 4 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 4 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 4 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 3 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 3 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 4 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 4 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 4 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 4 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 6 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 3 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 3 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–35 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences61.66 Mya37.71 Mya66.6 Mya33.3 Mya

91 occurrences of Miacidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

91 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

33 formations

Uinta — 40.15°N, 109.62°WUinta — 40.17°N, 109.93°WUinta — 40.08°N, 109.27°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 40.60°N, 108.10°WWasatch — 42.70°N, 110.10°WWasatch — 41.83°N, 110.75°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.33°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 44.89°N, 108.91°WShanghu — 25.12°N, 114.30°EShanghu — 25.08°N, 114.17°ELignites de Soissonais — 43.62°N, 5.75°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.05°N, 4.00°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.08°N, 4.03°EGreen River — 40.60°N, 108.10°WGreen River — 40.20°N, 109.90°WDevil's Graveyard — 29.90°N, 104.20°WDevil's Graveyard — 29.20°N, 103.20°WAycross — 43.70°N, 108.70°WCypress Hills — 50.20°N, 107.60°WCypress Hills — 50.00°N, 107.90°WWanghudun — 30.76°N, 116.55°EWanghudun — 30.59°N, 116.50°ESuffolk Pebble Beds — 52.10°N, 1.32°ESlope — 46.70°N, 101.80°WEvanston — 41.80°N, 110.70°WDeBeque — 39.70°N, 107.60°WNanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°W"Wasatch" — 44.00°N, 106.60°WFowkes — 41.31°N, 111.02°WLaredo — 27.53°N, 99.43°WSantiago — 33.22°N, 117.30°WChisos — 29.20°N, 103.20°WWiggins — 43.70°N, 108.70°WFriars — 32.90°N, 117.10°W

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The named rock units Miacidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Miacidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Miacidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,313 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 77 sites for Miacidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

49 references

Each of the 91 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 37 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Miacidae

Credit
Ryan Schwark
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCarnivoraformes through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1880