Parictis

Parictis
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Parictis".

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Parictis
Fossil range: Eocene – Miocene

Conservation status

Fossil

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Ursidae
Subfamily:	Amphicynodontinae
Genus:	Parictis
Species:	P. bathygenus, White 1947 P. dakotensis (37 Ma), Clark 1936 P. gilpini (35 Ma), Clark/Guensburg 1972 P. major, Clark and Guensburg 1972 P. montanus (36 Ma), Clark/Guensburg 1972 P. parvus (38 Ma), Clark/Beerbower, 1967 P. personi (33 Ma), Chaffee 1954^[1] P. primaevus, Scott 1893

Parictis is the earliest genus of bear known. It was a very small and graceful ursid with a skull only 7 cm long. Parictis first appeared in North America in the Late Eocene (ca. 38 million years ago), but it did not arrive in Eurasia and Africa until the Miocene.^[2] There is some suggestion that a limited emigration from Asia may have produced Parictis in North America due to the major sea level lowland circa 37 mya; however, as yet no Parictis fossils have yet to be found in East Asia.

References

^ Chafee, R. F. (1954). "Campylocynodon personi, a new Oligocene carnivore from the Beaver Divide, Wyoming". Journal of Paleontolgy 28 (1): 43–46.
^ Kemp, T.S. (2005). The Origin and Evolution of Mammals. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198507607.

Wikispecies has information related to:

Ursidae

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