Hyainailouroidea ("hyena-cats") is a superfamily of extinct predatory mammals from extinct order Hyaenodonta. Fossil remains of these mammals are known from middle Eocene to late Miocene deposits in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.[2] Members of this group probably originate from Afro-Arabia, a continent that remained isolated from the Albian (Early Cretaceous, around 100 Ma) to the Miocene (around 16 Ma). While in North America and Eurasia hyaenodonts competed with other predatory mammals, in Afro-Arabia they remained the main terrestrial predators.[1]
| Hyainailouroidea | |
|---|---|
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| Comparison of various Early to Middle Miocene hyaenodonts, including the hyainailurids Hyainailouros sulzeri (top) and Megistotherium osteothlastes (center), and teratodontid Dissopsalis pyroclasticus | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | †Hyaenodonta |
| Superfamily: | †Hyainailouroidea Borths, 2016[1] |
| Families | |
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Classification and phylogeny
editTaxonomy
edit- Superfamily: †Hyainailouroidea (Borths, 2016)
- Family: †Hyainailouridae (Pilgrim, 1932)
- Family: †Prionogalidae (Morales, 2008)
- Family: †Teratodontidae (Savage, 1965)
References
edit- ^ a b Matthew R. Borths; Patricia A. Holroyd; Erik R. Seiffert (2016). "Hyainailourine and teratodontine cranial material from the late Eocene of Egypt and the application of parsimony and Bayesian methods to the phylogeny and biogeography of Hyaenodonta (Placentalia, Mammalia)". PeerJ. 4: e2639. doi:10.7717/peerj.2639. PMC 5111901. PMID 27867761.
- ^ Floréal Solé; Bastien Mennecart (2019). "A large hyaenodont from the Lutetian of Switzerland expands the body mass range of the European mammalian predators during the Eocene". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 64 (2): 275–290. doi:10.4202/app.00581.2018.