Viverravidae

Viverravidae is an extinct monophyletic family of mammals from extinct superfamily Viverravoidea within the clade Pan-Carnivora, 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 to extant carnivorans. More recent analysis suggest a placement outside of the clade containing hyaenodonts, oxyaenids, and carnivoraformes.

Viverravidae

M. Fox · 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
CarnivoramorphaPBDB
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 807 occurrencesPaleocene — about 242 of 807 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 565 of 807 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 807 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences64–63 Mya — about 2 occurrences63–62 Mya — about 25 occurrences62–61 Mya — about 25 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 21 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 21 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 23 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 75 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 97 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 107 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 107 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 107 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 104 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 21 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 21 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 19 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 14 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 9 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 2 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences37–35 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences61.66 Mya37.71 Mya66.6 Mya33.3 Mya

807 occurrences of Viverravidae 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

807 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

50 formations

Willwood — 44.78°N, 108.97°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 44.82°N, 109.05°WWillwood — 43.95°N, 107.57°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.54°WWillwood — 44.59°N, 108.86°WWillwood — 44.49°N, 108.54°WWillwood — 44.53°N, 108.43°WWillwood — 44.42°N, 108.69°WWillwood — 44.44°N, 108.63°WWillwood — 44.53°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.67°WWillwood — 44.56°N, 108.70°WWillwood — 44.59°N, 108.62°WWillwood — 44.59°N, 108.41°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.72°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.90°WWillwood — 44.41°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.52°N, 108.65°WWillwood — 44.60°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.66°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.76°N, 108.88°WWillwood — 44.16°N, 107.87°WWillwood — 44.15°N, 107.86°WFort Union — 41.30°N, 107.74°WFort Union — 43.85°N, 108.35°WFort Union — 45.80°N, 109.80°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 41.70°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.72°N, 108.38°WFort Union — 44.66°N, 108.30°WFort Union — 43.70°N, 108.70°WFort Union — 44.89°N, 108.91°WFort Union — 45.40°N, 105.60°WFort Union — 43.45°N, 109.16°WFort Union — 44.30°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 41.92°N, 108.56°WFort Union — 45.20°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.50°N, 108.00°WFort Union — 44.72°N, 108.62°WFort Union — 44.67°N, 108.46°WFort Union — 44.16°N, 107.87°WFort Union — 39.27°N, 108.18°WFort Union — 44.05°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.88°N, 109.12°WFort Union — 44.90°N, 109.01°WFort Union — 44.85°N, 108.74°WFort Union — 44.81°N, 108.83°WFort Union — 41.83°N, 108.60°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 110.70°WWasatch — 41.27°N, 110.33°WWasatch — 40.60°N, 108.10°WWasatch — 42.72°N, 110.10°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 107.00°WWasatch — 41.75°N, 108.00°WWasatch — 41.20°N, 110.50°WWasatch — 42.37°N, 108.91°WWasatch — 41.86°N, 110.75°WWind River — 44.00°N, 106.60°WWind River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.33°WDeBeque — 40.00°N, 107.90°WDeBeque — 39.27°N, 108.18°WDeBeque — 39.20°N, 108.20°WDeBeque — 39.70°N, 107.60°WBridger — 41.70°N, 109.00°WBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WBridger — 42.70°N, 110.10°WBridger — 41.80°N, 110.70°WBridger — 42.37°N, 108.91°WBridger — 41.08°N, 110.10°WNacimiento — 35.70°N, 107.00°WNacimiento — 36.30°N, 108.20°WNacimiento — 36.57°N, 107.97°WNacimiento — 36.18°N, 107.58°WNacimiento — 36.27°N, 107.76°WPaskapoo — 51.18°N, 114.43°WPaskapoo — 51.50°N, 112.30°WPaskapoo — 52.35°N, 113.77°WPaskapoo — 54.80°N, 115.46°WPaskapoo — 54.80°N, 115.80°WPaskapoo — 51.20°N, 112.50°WPaskapoo — 51.00°N, 114.10°WPaskapoo — 53.23°N, 114.70°WWashakie — 40.60°N, 108.10°WWashakie — 41.70°N, 109.00°WWashakie — 41.29°N, 108.47°WHuerfano — 37.80°N, 105.10°W"Fort Union" (= Lebo) — 45.80°N, 109.80°W"Fort Union" (= Lebo) — 46.20°N, 109.90°WRavenscrag — 49.06°N, 102.75°WLower Variegated Sequence — 43.90°N, 110.80°WSan Jose — 35.70°N, 107.00°WSan Jose — 36.50°N, 107.00°WGreen River — 42.45°N, 108.60°WGreen River — 40.20°N, 109.90°WPorcupine Hills — 51.00°N, 114.10°WPorcupine Hills — 51.10°N, 114.28°WTuscahoma — 32.36°N, 88.70°WAycross — 43.70°N, 108.70°WAycross — 43.90°N, 110.80°W"Sheep Pass" — 39.00°N, 114.10°WTepee Trail — 43.70°N, 108.70°WTepee Trail — 43.20°N, 108.20°WUinta — 40.08°N, 109.27°WLignites de Soissonais — 49.05°N, 4.00°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.08°N, 4.03°EWutu — 36.52°N, 118.92°EGoler — 35.50°N, 117.77°W

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The named rock units Viverravidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 26 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 100 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Viverravidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Viverravidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

927 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 560 sites for Viverravidae, and this reads 240 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

102 references

Each of the 807 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. 90 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 Viverravidae

Credit
M. Fox
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Viverravidae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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 itCarnivoramorpha through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wortman and Matthew 1899