What is Viverravidae?
{{Automatic taxobox |fossil_range = {{fossil range|66.043|33.9}} early [[Paleocene]] - late [[Eocene]] |image = |image_caption = |display_parents = 2 |taxon = Viverravidae |parent_authority = Wortman & Matthew, 1899 |authority = {{Harvnb|Wortman|Matthew|1899}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wortman |first1=J. L. |last2=Matthew |first2=W. D. |author2-link=William Diller Matthew |title=The ancestry of certain members of the Canidae, Viverridae, and Procyonidae |year=1899 |journal=Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History |volume=12 |pages=109–138 |oclc=46687698 |hdl=2246/1535}}<!-- {{Harvnb|Wortman|Matthew|1899}} --></ref> |subdivision_ranks = Genera |subdivision = <center>[see [[#Revised classification|classification]]]</center> |synonyms = Didymictidae<ref>{{BioRef |fossilworks |title=†family Viverravidae (Wortman & Matthew, 1899) (placental) |id=40992 |access-date=29 June 2019}}</ref> }} The '''Viverravidae''' are an extinct [[family (biology)|family]] of early mammalian [[carnivores]]. They are in the superfamily [[Miacoidea]], and lived from the early [[Palaeocene]] to the [[Eocene]]. They first appeared in the Paleocene of [[North America]] about 60 million years ago. Viverravidae is a [[monophyletic]] family. In viverravids, the number of [[molar|molars]] is reduced to two and the [[skull]] is long. They are probably not related to any living carnivorans.<ref>Wesley-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 Paleontology'', '''3''': 1-28.</ref> The viverravids were previously thought to be the earliest carnivorans. A recent study of their skull [[morphology (biology)|morphology]] puts them outside the order [[Carnivora]].<ref name=Polly>{{cite journal | author = Polly, David | display-authors = etal | year = 2006 | title = Earliest known carnivoran auditory bulla and support for a recent origin of crown-clade carnivora (Eutheria, Mammalia) | jour