Parictis

Taxobox
name = "Parictis"
fossil_range = Eocene – Miocene
status = Fossil
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Carnivora
familia = Ursidae
subfamilia = 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 1954cite journal | author = Chafee, R. F. | year = 1954 | title = "Campylocynodon personi", a new Oligocene carnivore from the Beaver Divide, Wyoming | journal = Journal of Paleontolgy | volume = 28 | issue = 1 | pages = 43–46 ]
"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.cite book | author = Kemp, T.S. | year = 2005 | title = The Origin and Evolution of Mammals | publisher = Oxford University Press | id = ISBN 0198507607] 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