Feliformia

Feliformia is a suborder in the mammal order Carnivora. It contains all the Felidae, which are cat-like animals. The suborder also contains the relatives of the cats, which includes hyaenas, civets, Asiatic linsangs, and more. There are six families, twelve subfamilies, 56 genera and 114 species in the Feliformia suborder now.

Feliformia Temporal range: Eocene to Recent
Tiger (Panthera tigris)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia Kretzoi, 1945

Molecular phylogeny shows the Feliformia is monophyletic. The other suborder of Carnivora is the dog-like Caniformia.

Taxonomy

• Suborder Feliformia ("cat-like")
  • Family Eupleridae: Fossa and others
  • Family Felidae: Cats
    • Subfamily Felinae
    • Subfamily Pantherinae
  • Family Nandiniidae:
    • Genus Nandinia: African palm civet
  • Family Viverridae: Civet cats, Genets etc.
  • Family Hyaenidae: Hyaenas
    • Subfamily Hyaeninae
    • Subfamily Protelinae
  • Family Herpestidae: Mongooses
  • Family Primodontidae: Asiatic linsang
  • Family Eupleridae: Varied group, endemic to Madagascar

• †Barbourofelidae: Miocene "false" sabre-tooths
• †Nimravidae: "false" sabre-tooths, from Eocene to end Miocene.
• †Stenoplesictidae: Civet-like animals
• †Percrocutidae: hyaena-like forms from the Miocene to later Pliocene

Cladogram

Feliformia	Nimravidae† Stenoplesictidae† Percrocutidae† Nandiniidae Prionodontidae Barbourofelidae† Felidae Viverridae Hyaenidae Herpestidae Eupleridae

Feliformia Media

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  Feliformia skull showing double-chambered bullae

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  Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox)

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  Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)

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  Spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta)

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  Meerkat (Suricata suricatta)

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  Binturong (Arctictis binturong)

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  Feliform evolutionary timeline

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  Dinictis_Knight

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  The_carnivores_of_West_Africa_(Nandinia_binotata_white_background)

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  Malay_Civet_(Viverra_tangalunga)_white_background

References

1. Taxonomic references extant species (a); supporting descriptive information and pictures: Diversity Web (online) - Feliformia.

2. Taxonomic references extant species (b): ITIS Integrated Taxonomic Information System

3. Fossil record data (with taxonomic references) extant and extinct species: The Paleaobiology Database Archived 2012-05-08 at the Wayback Machine

4. Supporting taxonomic references extant and extinct species: Systema Naturae 2000 / Classification - Suborder Feliformia Archived 2007-09-26 at the Wayback Machine

5. Gina D. Wesley-Hunt and John J. Flynn 2005: Phylogeny of The Carnivora

6a. Anne D. Yoder and John J. Flynn 2003: Origin of Malagasy Carnivora Archived 2005-08-24 at the Wayback Machine

6b. Yoder, A., M. Burns, S. Zehr, T. Delefosse, G. Veron, S. Goodman, J. Flynn. 2003: Single origin of Malagasy Carnivora from an African ancestor – Letters to Nature

7. Philippe Gaubert, W. Chris Wozencraft, Pedro Cordeiro-Estrela and Géraldine Veron. 2005 - Mosaics of Convergences and Noise in Morphological Phylogenies: What's in a Viverrid-Like Carnivoran?