What is "viverravidae"

Viverravidae is an extinct family within the superfamily Miacoidea. They are related to carnivorans, and lived from the early Palaeocene to the Eocene.

In viverravids, the number of molars is reduced to two and the skull is elongated. Viverravidae is a monophyletic family, a plesion-group. They are not thought to be ancestral to any extant carnivorans.

The viverravids were thought to be the earliest carnivorans: they first appeared in the Paleocene of North America about 60 million years ago. One author proposed that they should be placed outside the order Carnivora based on cranial morphology.

Wang and Tedford propose that they arose in North America 65-60 million years ago, spread to Asia then later to Europe, and were the first carnivorans and possessed the first true pair of carnassial teeth.