# Viverravidae

Viverravidae ("ancestors of viverrids") 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 (a plesion-group) to extant carnivorans.

## General characteristics

Wang and Tedford propose that they arose in North America 66–60 million years ago, spread to Asia then later to Europe, and were the first carnivoramorphans and possessed the first true pair of carnassial teeth. In viverravids, the skull is elongated and the number of molars is reduced to two (M1/m1 and M2/m2 are present and M3/m3 are absent).

## Classification and phylogeny
### Classification

Taxonomy retrieved from the Paleobiology Database
Superfamily: †Viverravoidea (Wortman & Matthew, 1899) Family: †Viverravidae (Wortman & Matthew, 1899)
Genus: †Orientictis (Huang & Zheng, 2005)
†Orientictis spanios (Huang & Zheng, 2005)
Genus: †Pappictidops (Qiu & Li, 1977)
†Pappictidops acies (Wang, 1978)
†Pappictidops obtusus (Wang, 1978)
†Pappictidops orientalis (Qiu & Li, 1977)
Genus: †Preonictis (Tong & Wang, 2006)
†Preonictis youngi (Tong & Wang, 2006)
Genus: †Variviverra (Tong & Wang, 2006)
†Variviverra vegetatus (Tong & Wang, 2006)
Incertae sedis:
†Viverravidae sp. [CM 71188 & CM 71189] (Friscia & Rasmussen, 2010)
Subfamily: †Didymictinae (Flynn & Galiano, 1982)
Genus: †Bryanictis (MacIntyre, 1966)
†Bryanictis microlestes (Simpson, 1935)
†Bryanictis paulus (Meehan & Wilson, 2002)
†Bryanictis terlinguae (Standhardt, 1986)
Genus: †Didymictis (Cope, 1875)
†Didymictis altidens (Cope, 1880)
†Didymictis dellensis (Dorr, 1952)
†Didymictis leptomylus (Cope, 1880)
†Didymictis protenus (Cope, 1874)
†Didymictis proteus (Polly, 1997)
†Didymictis vancleveae (Robinson, 1966)
†Didymictis sp. [Erquelinnes, Hainaut, Belgium] (Dollo, 1909)
Genus: †Intyrictis (Gingerich & Winkler, 1985)
†Intyrictis vanvaleni (MacIntyre, 1966)
Genus: †Pristinictis (Fox & Youzwyshyn, 1994)
†Pristinictis connata (Fox & Youzwyshyn, 1994)
Genus: †Protictis (Matthew, 1937)
†Protictis agastor (Gingerich & Winkler, 1985)
†Protictis haydenianus (Cope, 1882)
†Protictis minor (Meehan & Wilson, 2002)
†Protictis paralus (Holtzman, 1978)
†Protictis simpsoni (Meehan & Wilson, 2002)
Subgenus: †Protictoides (Flynn & Galiano, 1982)
†Protictis aprophatos (Flynn & Galiano, 1982)
Genus: †Raphictis (Gingerich & Winkler, 1985)
†Raphictis gausion (Gingerich & Winkler, 1985)
†Raphictis iota (Scott, 2008)
†Raphictis machaera (Rankin, 2009)
†Raphictis nanoptexis (Rankin, 2009)
Incertae sedis:
†"Deltatherium" durini (Van Valen, 1978)
Subfamily: †Ictidopappinae (Van Valen, 1969)
Genus: †Ictidopappus (Simpson, 1935)
†Ictidopappus mustelinus (Simpson, 1935)
Subfamily: †Viverravinae (Wortman & Matthew, 1899)
Genus: †Simpsonictis (MacIntyre, 1962)
†Simpsonictis jaynanneae (Rigby, 1980)
†Simpsonictis pegus (Gingerich & Winkler, 1985)
†Simpsonictis tenuis (Simpson, 1935)
Genus: †Viverravus (Marsh, 1872)
†Viverravus acutus (Matthew & Granger, 1915)
†Viverravus gracilis (Marsh, 1872)
†Viverravus lawsoni (Hooker, 2010)
†Viverravus laytoni (Gingerich & Winkler, 1985)
†Viverravus lutosus (Gazin, 1952)
†Viverravus minutus (Wortman, 1901)
†Viverravus politus (Matthew & Granger, 1915)
†Viverravus rosei (Polly, 1997)
†Viverravus sicarius (Matthew, 1909)
†Viverravus sp. [V11141] (Meng, 1998)
†Viverravus sp. [Locality Group 2, Washakie Basin, Wyoming] (Tomiya, 2021)
Genus: †Viverriscus (Beard & Dawson, 2009)
†Viverriscus omnivorus (Beard & Dawson, 2009) :

### Phylogeny

The phylogenetic relationships of family Viverravidae are shown in the following cladogram: