Miacis
| Miacis | ||||||||||||
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Live reconstruction of miacis |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| early Paleocene to late Eocene | ||||||||||||
| 55 to 33 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Miacis | ||||||||||||
| Cope , 1872 | ||||||||||||
Miacis is an extinct genus of carnivorous mammals whose representativeslivedin North America and Eurasia in the Paleocene and Eocene. Miacis and relatives are believed to be the ancestors of today's bears , dogs, and cats .
description
Species of the genus Miacis were about 30 centimeters long; so they reached the length of today's weasel. They had five claws on each foot and 44 teeth in their mouths. They had long tails, short legs, and long bodies. Overall, they looked like dogs.
Way of life
Species of the genus Miacis lived in forests and climbed marten-like on trees. First and foremost, they were carnivores, but probably also ate fruit and eggs sometimes . Small reptiles , small mammals and birds are considered to be prey .
Her brain was very large in relation to her body mass. It was also much larger than the brain of the carnivorous Creodonts .
habitat
In the Paleocene and Eocene , the whole earth was covered by forests. A perfect habitat for small predators like miacis .
Miacis shared its habitat with small, tree-dwelling mammals such as Ptilodus . The three-meter-long mammal Titanoides , on the other hand, lived on the forest floor and in swamps. Although Miacis was a predator, it was not the top predator of its time. The giant bird Gastornis made the forests unsafe back then. The Therapside Chronoperates also lived in the Paleocene .
Miacis was very common in its day. However, when the forests disappeared at the end of the Eocene and larger predators such as the Mesonychians , the Hyaenodonta and the Oxyaenodonta spread, Miacis became extinct .
Systematics
Eighteen species belong to the genus Miacis .
- Miacis australis
- M. cognitus
- M. deutschi
- M. exiguus
- M. hargeri
- M. hookwayi
- M. igniculus
- M. invictus
- M. latidens
- M. latouri
- M. lushiensis
- M. medius
- M. parvivorus
- M. petilus
- M. sylvestris
- M. vulpinus
- M. washakius
- M. uintensis
Web links
- Miacis in the Paleobiology Database
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heinrich, RE; SG Strait, P. Houde (2007): Earliest Eocene Miacidae (Mammalia: Carnivora) from Northwestern Wyoming . - Journal of Paleontology 82 (1): pp. 154-162.
- ↑ meerkatwiki
- ^ Paleobiology Database