Carnivora is an order of placental mammals that have specialized in primarily eating flesh, whose members are formally referred to as carnivorans. The order Carnivora is the fifth largest order of mammals, comprising at least 279 species.
Hyenas or hyaenas are feliform carnivoran mammals belonging to the family Hyaenidae. With just four extant species, it is the fourth-smallest family in the order Carnivora and one of the smallest in the class Mammalia. Despite their low diversity, hyenas are unique and vital components of most African ecosystems.
Ailuridae is a family in the mammal order Carnivora. The family consists of the red panda and its extinct relatives.
Ekorus ekakeran is a large, extinct mustelid mammal. Fossils, including largely complete skeletons, are known from the late Miocene of Kenya.
Cimolesta is an extinct order of non-placental eutherian mammals. Cimolestans had a wide variety of body shapes, dentition and lifestyles, though the majority of them were small to medium-sized general mammals that bore superficial resemblances to rodents, lagomorphs, mustelids, and marsupials.
Viverravidae is an extinct monophyletic family of mammals from extinct superfamily Viverravoidea within the clade Carnivoramorpha, 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.
Chasmaporthetes, also known as hunting or running hyena, is an extinct genus of hyenas distributed in Eurasia, North America, and Africa during the Pliocene-Pleistocene epochs, living from 4.9 million to 780,000 years ago, existing for about 4.12 million years. The genus probably arose from Eurasian Miocene hyenas such as Thalassictis or Lycyaena, with C. borissiaki being the oldest known representative. The species C. ossifragus was the only hyena to cross the Bering land bridge into the Americas, and ranged over what is now Arizona and Mexico during Blancan and early Irvingtonian Land Mammal ages, between 5.0 and 1.5 million years ago.
Percrocuta is an extinct genus of hyena-like feliform carnivores. It lived in Europe, Asia, and Africa, during the Miocene epoch.
Parictis is an extinct arctoid belonging to the family Subparictidae.
Ursoidea is a superfamily of arctoid carnivoran mammals that includes the families Subparictidae, Amphicynodontidae, and Ursidae which the last family includes the extant lineages of bears as well the extinct Hemicyoninae and Ursavinae. The interrelationships of ursoids has had slight arrangements. In the past it was thought the extinct Amphicyonidae were stem-bears based on morphological analysis of the ear region, though the most recent publications on early amphicyonids suggests they were basal caniforms. The amphicynodontids are sometimes classified as either a subfamily of bears, a paraphyletic assemblage of early bears, or even stem-pinnipeds. The subparictids were previously classified as amphicynodontine/ids. The hemicyonines have been occasionally reclassified as a separate family.
Ptolemaiida is a taxon of wolf-sized afrothere mammals that lived in northern and eastern Africa during the Paleogene. The oldest fossils are from the latest Eocene strata of the Jebel Qatrani Formation, near the Fayum oasis in Egypt. A tooth is known from an Oligocene-aged stratum in Angola, and Miocene specimens are known from Kenya and Uganda.
Xinyuictis is an extinct genus of placental mammals from clade Carnivoraformes, that lived in Asia from the early to late Eocene.
Bryanictis is an extinct genus of placental mammals from extinct subfamily Didymictinae within extinct family Viverravidae, that lived in North America, from the early to late Paleocene.
Quercygale is an extinct genus of placental mammals from extinct family Quercygalidae within clade Carnivoraformes, that lived in Europe during the early to late Eocene. Phylogenetic analysis of the basicranial morphology of carnivoramorphans suggests Quercygale is the most advanced member of clade Carnivoraformes as a sister taxon to crown group Carnivora, predating the split between Feliformia and Caniformia, although another recent study has proposed genus Quercygale should be placed as a stem group within Feliformia.
Ysengrinia is an extinct genus of carnivoran in the family Amphicyonidae (beardogs), which lived in Europe, Asia, and North America during the Early Miocene. It was also reported from Egypt and Namibia, but this material has been reassigned to other genera of beardogs.
Thalassictis is an extinct genus of terrestrial carnivore in the family Hyaenidae that lived in Asia during the Middle to Late Miocene and in Europe and North Africa during the Late Miocene.
Dinocrocuta is an extinct genus of hyena-like feliform carnivores in the extinct family Percrocutidae. It lived in Asia and Africa during the Miocene epoch. It had very strong jaws that were able to crush bones.
Amphimachairodus is an extinct genus of large machairodonts. It is also a member of the tribe Homotherini within Machairodontinae and is most closely related to such genera as Xenosmilus, Homotherium itself, and Nimravides. It inhabited Eurasia, Northern Africa and North America during the late Miocene epoch.
Herpestoidea is a superfamily of mammalia carnivores which includes mongooses, Malagasy carnivorans and the hyenas.
Protictis is an extinct paraphyletic genus of placental mammals from extinct subfamily Didymictinae within extinct family Viverravidae, that lived in North America from early Paleocene to middle Eocene.
