Musteloidea

Superfamily of carnivoran mammals

Musteloidea

Temporal range: Oligocene–Present

PreꞒ

Left-right: spotted skunk, red panda, wolverine and raccoon; representing the families Mephitidae, Ailuridae, Mustelidae and Procyonidae.
Scientific classification
Domain:  | Eukaryota
Kingdom:  | Animalia
Phylum:  | Chordata
Class:  | Mammalia
Order:  | Carnivora
Infraorder:  | Arctoidea
Superfamily:  | Musteloidea
Fischer, 1817
Families

* Ailuridae
* Mephitidae
* Mustelidae (type)
* Procyonidae
* Incertae sedis
* †Peignictis

Musteloidea is a superfamily of carnivoran mammals united by shared characteristics of the skull and teeth. Musteloids are the sister group of pinnipeds, the group which includes seals.[1]

Musteloidea comprises the following families:

* Ailuridae, the red panda (and its extinct kin).

* Mephitidae, the skunks and stink badgers.

* Mustelidae, the weasel (mustelid) family, including new- and old-world badgers, ferrets and polecats, fishers, grisons and ratels, martens and sables, minks, river and sea otters, stoats and ermines, tayras and wolverines.

* Procyonidae, the raccoons and raccoon-like procyonids, including coatimundis, kinkajous, olingos, olinguitos, ringtails and cacomistles.

In North America, ursids (bears) and musteloids first appeared in the Chadronian[citation needed] of the late Eocene, and in early-Oligocene Europe, immediately following the Grande Coupure extinction event.

The following cladogram is based on molecular phylogeny of six genes in Flynn (2005),[2] with the musteloids updated following the multigene analysis of Law et al. (2018).[3]

Caniformia |  |  |

Canidae (dogs and other canines)

|

Arctoidea |  |  |

Ursidae (bears)

|

|  |  |

Pinnipedia (seals)

|

Musteloidea |  |  |

Mephitidae (skunks)

|

Ailuridae (red pandas)

|  |  |

Procyonidae (raccoons, coatis, kinkajous)

|

Mustelidae (weasels, otters, badgers)

("weasel" superfamily)

## References[edit]

1. ^ Welsey-Hunt, G.D. & Flynn, J.J. (2005). "Phylogeny of the Carnivora: basal relationships among the Carnivoramorphans, and assessment of the position of 'Miacoidea' relative to Carnivora". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 3 (1): 1–28. doi:10.1017/S1477201904001518.
2. ^ Flynn, J. J.; Finarelli, J. A.; Zehr, S.; Hsu, J.; Nedbal, M. A. (2005). "Molecular phylogeny of the Carnivora (Mammalia): Assessing the impact of increased sampling on resolving enigmatic relationships". Systematic Biology. 54 (2): 317–37. doi:10.1080/10635150590923326. PMID 16012099.
3. ^ Law, Chris J.; Slater, Graham J.; Mehta, Rita S. (2018-01-01). "Lineage Diversity and Size Disparity in Musteloidea: Testing Patterns of Adaptive Radiation Using Molecular and Fossil-Based Methods". Systematic Biology. 67 (1): 127–144. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syx047. ISSN 1063-5157. PMID 28472434.

Taxon identifiers|

* Wikidata: Q2670845
* Wikispecies: Musteloidea
* EoL: 52384568
* Fossilworks: 67879

|

*[†]: Extinct